Opening of a Door Once Closed
by Anime PJ
Summary: Simon is the son of two of the most loyal servants to the Arendelle royal family, and as such, he has been raised within the castle to take on the same job as them. As a child, he spent a lot of time with the two princesses ... until one of them locked herself away. Now, on the day of Queen Elsa's coronation, he'll try and rekindle this lost friendship ... but winter is coming.
1. Winter is Coming

**Merry Christmas, Constant Readers, and welcome to my story for _Frozen_! Y'know, I had a feeling I'd be writing one eventually, and here it is! This will cover the events of the film, because that's how I usually do things, and I may even do a one-shot sequel to cover the events of _Frozen Fever_. This will be an OC/Elsa story, naturally, and while the romance will be both slower and faster than usual (you'll see what I mean when you read the story), I hope you guys appreciate what I'm doing here.**

 **Welcome to _Opening of a Door Once Closed_!**

 **Wow, a T-rated story from me … Seriously, the only thing in this that I would say is inappropriate for children is the strong language and innuendoes that my character will be spouting. I find myself curiously unable to write a _completely_ child friendly story, apparently. Must be all the Stephen King books I read. _shrugs_**

 **(As I write this AN, I'm aiming to write out this whole story and then release it all on Christmas day as a gift to you all. If I'm not done by then, I'll just upload what I have, as I'm sure it will be at least two or three chapters.)**

 **Let's begin.**

* * *

Winter is Coming

 **This story began much earlier than I'm going to start it, but you must forgive me for that. I wasn't actually around for the events that acted as the catalyst for this whole situation, but I was, in a way, involved in the aftermath. Well, more _affected_ than involved, but you get the idea.**

 **My name is Simon. My parents – Kai and Gerda – were both servants of the Arendelle royal family, meaning that we lived in the castle. (Which wasn't as glamorous as you might think – it was like living at work.) I worked for them, too, but in a lesser capacity; at least in my younger years. I helped Mum and Dad with whatever work they thought I could handle, and I spent the rest of the time trying to entertain myself.**

 **Entertaining myself normally meant spending time with the two princesses, Elsa and Anna. Since my family lived in the castle – in the servants' quarters, mind you, but still in the castle – I had known the two practically since the day I was born, and while a few of the snottier nobles disliked the idea of a servant being friends with the princesses, neither my parents, nor the king and queen, seemed to mind. And so I spent my younger years getting to know and be friends with the future queen and her sister. (Though when it came to spending time with them alone, I curiously spent a lot more time with Elsa than I did with Anna.)**

 **It wasn't until later years that I realised just how little I truly knew. But that comes later.**

 **All was going well, until one day, when I was about six or seven years old – I don't remember, exactly – the only one of the two I could find to spend time with was Anna. For some reason the gates of the castle were closed off near enough permanently, too. I tried knocking on Elsa's door a few times to see if there was anything wrong with her, but all I ever got was "Go away," and "Leave me alone." I couldn't have told you why at the time, but hearing Elsa say that to me _really_ hurt. And yet it didn't stop me from trying – every time Elsa's birthday or Christmas came around, I would slide a card under her constantly closed door.**

 **It hurt Anna, too, I could tell. Anna and I spent an awful lot of time alone together over the years, and neither of us ever saw hide nor hair of Elsa for years to come. With every passing day, I grew more and more worried and depressed. For some reason Anna took to singing about snowmen every day for years, but I just assumed that was her way of coping with the lack of contact with her sister. Either way, over those years we spent together, I came to see Anna as more of a sister than a friend, something that made me feel almost uncomfortable for some reason.**

 **Our time together shrank, however, when I hit my teen years, and my parents started giving me more work to do around the castle. I still saw Anna whenever I could, but opportunities to enjoy our time together were few and far between. Slowly but surely, we began to drift apart.**

 **Then the king and queen left by boat to go to a wedding in the far off land of Corona … and never came back. Their ship never even reached its destination.**

 **This hit everyone hard, as the king and queen were about as nice a pair of rulers as you could get. I could certainly tell it hit Anna hard, though due to lack of contact, I couldn't tell you about Elsa – I could only _assume_ she was devastated. My parents and I attended the funeral, and Anna was there, but Elsa was not. I gave Anna a hug, but I never even got an opportunity to see how Elsa felt.**

 **Things went on as usual after that, just with a dark cloud hanging over us for awhile. I cleaned, I delivered messages, and eventually I became a full-time servant around the castle, complete with all the duties. It was good work, and I did enjoy working with my parents, but the idea that I was leaving Anna alone most of the time didn't sit right with me.**

 **But then came a day when I got the opportunity to speak with both Anna _and_ Elsa.**

 **Elsa turned twenty-one years old, and that meant she was to officially become queen. On her coronation day she would have to exit her room and interact with people. The thought of it made my heart leap for joy.**

 **There are no words I can use to describe just how much I was looking forward to the possibility of speaking to both of my childhood friends again.**

 **Too bad that was the day we found ourselves up shit creak without a paddle.**

* * *

It wasn't hard to wake up that morning. It wasn't hard to wake up _any_ morning. As a servant of the castle, I was expected to be up and about as quickly as I could manage on any day, and the day of Queen Elsa's coronation was of particular importance, for obvious reasons. The second my eyes drifted open, I got up from my bed and set about making myself as presentable as could be. My parents had me greeting some special guests as they arrived at the docks, and I would have to look proper if I was going to make a good impression.

I got out of bed and immediately went over to the mirror. I was still slightly groggy, but that would pass by soon enough.

Reflected back at me were both the entirety of my small room in the servants' quarters, and my own face. My face was thin but strong, and my deep blue eyes reflected back at me, blinking out sleep. My hair was short, curly, and black, and the first thing I did was grab a comb and slick it back to make it look more well-kept. When that was done, I went over to my small wardrobe and took out a dark blue suit. Taking off the rags I wore as pyjamas, I revealed my toned body – you would be surprised how much exercise one could get from working in a castle – and immediately threw on the suit, brushing what few creases there were out of it.

I looked back in the mirror and nodded at my reflection. I put on a pair of black shoes over white socks, and I was ready for the day.

I exited my room, and there was already a rather large hustle and bustle amongst the other servants. I weaved my way through them with some effort, intending on making my way to the kitchen and maybe grabbing myself a piece of bread to eat for a small breakfast on my way to the docks. It was after successfully navigating my way through the moving labyrinth of people that I came across my father, who was no longer a simple servant, and more of an overseer in the castle.

He was a big fellow, my father, with balding brown hair that only now covered the sides and back of his head. His nose was rather large, but that was around the only abnormality about him. He wore a blue jacket over a brown waistcoat, which in turn was worn over a white shirt; around his neck was a large white bow.

"Ah, Simon," he said, smiling, as I approached. "You're up a lot later than expected."

"Am I?" I asked, suddenly panicked. "I got out of bed as soon as I woke up, and I _still_ end up being late?" I sighed. "Sometimes I wonder why you don't just fire me. And if it's because I'm your son, I'm quitting on basic principle. Just FYI."

Dad laughed. "No, I'm not quite _that_ biassed. Your punctuality may not be your best feature, but your work speed certainly is. Being late to start work and still getting all the work done on time isn't something a lot of people can do, you know."

"I know." I looked out of a nearby window to see how late I was – it looked like I still had a little time before the boats docked. "All right, then. I guess I'm skipping breakfast. Tell me honestly: how do I look? I don't wanna go down to the docks looking like crap."

"Language," he scolded.

"I'm _twenty years old_. You don't get to use that any more."

"Yes I do, I'm your father. Anyway, you look absolutely fine, son. Just get to the docks so the guests who travelled from overseas feel welcome."

"Will do. See you at the coronation."

I walked away swiftly, moving my way to the front of the castle. The gates would still be closed, but there was a way out that the servants used when we needed to buy things from the market, which was the way I would be using. The gates weren't to be opened until the Queen said so. Exiting the castle through the front door, outside of which were the gates, I turned off to the right. There was a smaller door off to the right, which I went through. It lead into a back alley of sorts, and after walking down it for a few moments, I found myself out in the city of Arendelle.

Things were particularly lively on that day, as you can well imagine. The market was positively _bursting_ with activity from citizens preparing to attend the coronation, to merchants in the market trying to sell as much as possible. I had truly never seen the place so alive before.

Not having time to stand around and admire the spectacle, I made my way as quickly as I could to the docks, where I could see the first of the ships was just about to arrive. I gave a silent sigh of relief that I was just on time to get there before anyone got off the ship.

I stood on the end of the dock (not the end by the water, but the one they'd be walking to) and brushed my suit down one more time. I put on a winning smile and prepared to greet whoever was on this first ship. There were three that we were expecting that had a lot more significance than the others. The Duke of Weselton was expected, what with Weselton being Arendelle's closest trade partner and all, and the princess and prince of Corona were coming, as Anna and Elsa were the princess' cousins. (The prince was only royalty through marriage, if I recall correctly.) The third ship was something of a surprise; someone from the Southern Isles was attending the coronation. Arendelle didn't have a particularly close relationship with them other than in trade agreements, so I was rather curious about it.

 _Actually, isn't it still a little early for the ships to be arriving?_ I thought to myself. _I only went for breakfast because I thought I had plenty of time, and even though I got up later than I thought, from the fact that nobody is waiting at the castle gates just yet, I'd say that this ship is quite a bit early._

The ship docked, and I cut off that train of thought. I checked myself over one last time and smiled.

The man who got off the ship first was around my age, maybe a little younger or older – I really couldn't tell. Even as a straight man I thought he was good looking, with fair skin and some freckles lightly dusting his nose. He had well-combed, auburn hair and sideburns, and green eyes. He wore a light grey and black, patterned blazer, over a blue shirt, an indigo vest, and a magenta cravat tie. On his shoulders were black epaulets and a gold aiguilette. On his bottom half he wore navy blue trousers and black boots. On his hands were a pair of white gloves. He was leading a brown horse with him.

As he approached, I cleared my throat and made sure I was standing straight. "Welcome to Arendelle," I said once he'd reached me. I gave a small, polite bow of the head. "Who might I have the pleasure of addressing?"

"Prince Hans of the Southern Isles," he said, smiling and polite.

"Welcome, my prince," I said, bowing much lower than I had previously. I hadn't expected that the Southern Isles would send _royalty_ , of all things, when Weselton, whom Arendelle had a much closer relationship with, had announced they were sending their Duke. "Would you like someone to come and tend to your horse?"

"Thank you, but no," said Prince Hans. "I'd like to ride him around town for awhile."

Luckily my polite smile masked the laughter that was building up from the way he worded that.

"As you wish, my prince." I bowed again. "I hope Arendelle is to your liking."

"Oh, I'm sure it will be." There was something different about his smile that time, but he had walked past me with his horse and left before I could figure out what. Instead, I was left to greet and offer aid to those who had travelled on the ship with him.

As it turned out, they really had gotten there rather early. I couldn't tell you how much time exactly I was stood there because I didn't have a watch on me, but judging from the way the crowd in front of the gates started to form and grow, I would say it was at the very least an hour. When the other ships started coming in, I was rather relieved to have something to do. I straightened myself up again, my posture having slackened due to the large amount of time I spent idle, and began to greet the new arrivals.

The second of the more significant guests to arrive was the Duke of Weselton. The man was a pompous ass, if I ever saw one. He was old, short, and put way too much effort into making himself look as fancy as possible. I would have appreciated the effort he put into looking good for the coronation, but the way he acted gave me the impression that he dressed that way as much as he could. I would describe him to you, but I really don't want to waste my time talking about that guy. He had two big guys with him who looked more like thugs than bodyguards – that's all you're getting.

It was what I heard him say shortly after he left that I think is worth talking about.

"Ah, Arendelle, our most mysterious trade partner," he said. "Open those gates so I may unlock your secrets and exploit your riches." There was a pause. "Did I say that out loud?"

 _Yes you did, you daft sod,_ I thought, smirking to myself. _Filing that away to tell Dad about later … and I'd better warn Anna or Elsa, too, just for safety's sake. Probably Elsa; Anna's a great person, but she can be a little air-headed at times._

It didn't occur to me that, after all these years, I didn't know all that much about Elsa any more. The thought of seeing her again, _speaking_ to her again filled my mind, and I felt a sudden wave of joy and excitement. I thought I was just highly anticipating a reunion with my childhood best friend.

It was a few moments later that, upon glancing in that general direction, I noticed that the windows at the front of the castle were opening.

More ships were arriving by the minute, and the dock master joined me in the little meet-and-greet I'd been doing. All I had to do was wait for the ship from Corona, greet the two royals that would be on it, and then I could go and get ready for the coronation. To be quite frank, I was only told to welcome the more high-class guests, and then I was allowed to leave. It seemed a bit snobbish to me, but I certainly wasn't going to complain about being able to move from my spot at the end of those damned docks at long last.

I saw the boat from Corona quite easily when it arrived. The flags were all white with a symbol that looked curiously like a cross between a flower and the sun. It was a rather nice little art piece.

The ship docked, and people started getting off.

There were two people accompanied by a white horse. The man had dark brown hair, a slightly scruffy goatee, and light brown eyes. He wore a dark grey shirt with a dark brown sleeveless jacket over it. He was wearing black trousers and shoes, though he looked rather uncomfortable in them, like he was used to being able to move more freely in his clothes.

The woman had fair skin with a hint of blush to it, short, _dark_ brown hair, and bright green eyes. She wore a simple yet fancy cream-coloured dress, and had a … _chameleon_ on her shoulder.

The horse looked like most other horses for the most part, but there was a sense of intelligence in his face that I had never seen on a horse before. He was fully decked out in a saddle, ready to be ridden at any given notice. There was some kind of pendant around his neck, presumably a name tag.

I stood myself up straight again and greeted them.

"Greetings, and welcome to Arendelle," I said, smiling widely at them, bowing my head. "Can I assume that you're the royals from Corona?"

"What gave it away? The big golden flower on the flags?" asked the man, grinning.

The woman elbowed him in the side lightly, but I laughed.

"That and the chameleon," I said, nodding to the lizard on the woman's shoulder. "It may surprise you to know that we don't often meet people who have friends of a reptilian nature." From the man's demeanour, even if he _was_ a prince, I felt it safe to joke around with him.

The man's expression morphed into one of shock. "You mean that's _not_ common?"

" _Eugene_ ," said the woman, drawing out the man's name as she said it. She shook her head, then looked at me. She curtseyed, which was a new one on me – _no one_ introduced themselves to the servants that politely. "Princess Rapunzel of Corona."

"Prince Eugene of Corona," said the man, bowing down to me.

"A pleasure to meet you, your highnesses," I said, bowing down. "My name is Simon, and I'm one of the servants up in the castle." I looked between the chameleon and the horse. "And who are these two fine creatures?"

"This is Pascal," said Princess Rapunzel, looking fondly at the chameleon on her shoulder.

"And this noble steed is Maximus," said Prince Eugene, clapping the horse on the side.

I smiled at the closeness these two shared with their animal companions. "Well, I don't know enough about chameleons to know what they eat, but we have an excellent orchard here in Arendelle," I said. I took a glance at the intelligent-looking horse. "I can bring you some later, if you'd like?"

Maximus gave an approving whinny, nodding his head at me.

I smiled again. _An animal that can perfectly understand English,_ I thought. _Who'd have thought?_

As I found out later, sentient animals was a _lot_ more common than I initially thought.

"Well, don't let me keep you," I said, bowing to the lot of them again. "I'm sure you're eager to get to the coronation. I'll be heading there myself shortly. Good day to you, your highnesses."

"Y'know, Simon, because I like you, I just want you to call me Eugene," said Eugene. "That 'your highness' crap never really worked for me, anyway."

"Eugene, _language_ ," said Princess Rapunzel.

I found myself laughing rather easily around these two. They were a great couple. "All right, then, Eugene, I hope you enjoy your time in Arendelle. You, too, Princess Rapunzel. Pascal. Maximus."

"Just Rapunzel," said Rapunzel. "Any friend of Eugene's is a friend of mine."

"That, and you're friends with basically everybody," said Eugene.

Pascal seemed to nod at me and smile from his perch on Rapunzel's shoulder. I was a little shocked that yet another animal could understand me.

Maximus came over and actually nuzzled against me slightly, then pulled quickly away as if he'd just done something embarrassing.

They left after that, and I found myself watching them go. As they reached the castle, the gates opened, and I took that as my cue to get moving.

As I walked away from the docks, wishing goodbye to the dock master as I went, I found myself being overtaken by a great sense of joy and excitement. There was a skip in my step I barely noticed, a smile on my face that probably should have thoroughly destroyed my cheekbones, and my heart was practically singing.

 _I have waited many years for this great moment,  
_ _Wandering through the halls of that giant castle,  
_ _Asking just where all the fun went  
_ _Amidst the hustle and bustle._

 _But now the day is here at last  
_ _And my heart is beating fast;  
_ _The sun is shining brightly  
_ _And my feet are moving lightly._

 _The wind is passing rapid through my hair so black  
_ _Because today I get my two friends back!_

I couldn't tell you where the sudden urge to sing came from, but it was there. _Maybe Anna's little song craze is contagious._ I doubted it, but she had been singing the same snowman song for years, so there was a possibility. Why I was singing didn't really matter in the end. As I went in through the gates of the castle, I was reminded of exactly what _did_ matter at the moment.

I was about to see Elsa for the first time in years.

The bells hadn't even rung to signify it was about to start, and I was already excited!

* * *

The chapel in which the coronation was taking place was absolutely packed. The rest of the servants and I ended up having to stand up near the back, but it was worth it, because at the front of the chapel stood Anna and Elsa, together for the first time since we were children. I would have given anything to be up there with them, my two best friends, but I was no royal, no was I even considered important enough in the grand scheme of things to have a seat. I would have to be content with watching from the back.

There was a choir singing in the stands above us. It was setting quite the mood.

Anna looked much the same as she normally did. Her eyes were turquoise blue, and her hair was strawberry blonde, though there was a streak of platinum blonde that had randomly appeared around the same time Elsa had shut herself away in her room. (Anna kept insisting she was born with it, but I had never seen it before.) Her skin had a fair complexion, and her face had a few dusting of freckles. She wore a black dress with off-the-shoulder green straps, and the skirt portion of the dress was an olive colour. There was a pendant around her neck showing Arendelle's symbol. She had worn her hair in a bun for the occasion.

It was Elsa that really got my attention, though.

After years of not seeing her, the only word I could use to describe the way she looked was "beautiful." Her hair, platinum blonde as it had always been, was tied up in a bun with a more regal look to it, and a slight fringe that drew toward the left side of her face.. Her blue eyes were enchanting even from that distance. Her skin was pale, and, like her sister, there was a dusting of freckles on her face, though it was much less noticeable on Elsa. She was wearing a teal dress with a sweetheart bodice, with dark teal, maroon, and purple patterns on the bodice and skirt. Beneath she wore a black, long-sleeved, turtle-neck blouse with red and teal patterns. On her feet were brown flats with golden outlines. On her hands were a pair of sky blue gloves.

I couldn't bring myself to take my eyes off of her, not even for a second. I was mesmerised. My heart was beating in my chest, and I felt my face heat up ever so slightly. I remembered having a similar reaction whenever I saw her as a child, albeit much more severe.

Elsa bowed her head, and the bishop performing the coronation placed a tiara on her head. He picked up a pillow, upon which were a sceptre and an orb. Elsa made to reach for them, but the bishop said something I could not hear, and Elsa slowly, almost hesitantly, removed her gloves. She picked up the two items and turned toward the crowd. Even with the distance between us, I could tell that the neutral expression she bore was taking her some effort to maintain.

Then the bishop spoke again. "Sehm hon HELL-drr IN-um HELL-gum AYG-num ok krund ee THES-um HELL-gah STAHTH, ehk teh frahm FUR-ear U-thear … Queen Elsa of Arendelle."

"Queen Elsa of Arendelle!" the crowd, myself included, repeated.

Elsa put the sceptre and the orb down and rapidly put on her gloves. She looked all right now. I couldn't help but wonder if may she'd developed some kind of aversion to touching things. Like some kind of germ phobia? It was the only way I could explain her apparent desperation to get her gloves back on. And the fact that she wore said gloves all the time seemed to support that theory.

With the coronation done with, everyone began to file out of the chapel.

It was time to celebrate!

* * *

The ball room where the celebration of the coronation was taking place was filled with springy music, and all of the guests were dancing, eating, and drinking happily. The servants were around to help anyone if they needed it, but otherwise we were free to enjoy the party. Which is exactly what I did. I've never been a great dancer, I'll admit, so I spent most of it mingling with the crowd, making sure they were enjoying themselves. I found myself wanting to look for Eugene and Rapunzel, because I quite liked those two.

I kept one eye on the Duke of Weselton whenever he was in my line of sight. After what I had heard him say earlier, I had no intention of letting him go anywhere unwatched. _I'll have to tell Dad when he comes out._

That didn't take very long, as it turned out.

Trumpets began to play, and at the front of the ballroom, an area which no one had occupied up until this point, Dad was stood.

"Queen Elsa of Arendelle!" he announced, and Elsa entered from the right. She looked a lot more composed than she had before – I dare say she even looked strangely content. "Princess Anna of Arendelle!" Anna ran into the room from the left; she stood there and waved rather awkwardly. Dad ushered her over so that she was standing right next to Elsa. When he was gone, however, she took an awkward step away.

I could understand, in a sense. Having not seen her sister in years, it was fairly reasonable that she would feel strange to be standing next to her.

The crowd applauded, and I joined in with them. The music picked up again, but it was slower this time, like something you'd dance a waltz to. Much more traditional ball music.

Without really thinking about it, I made my way over to Dad, who was about to start talking to the guests.

"Dad, can I talk to you for a sec?" I asked, quietly.

He looked at me, concerned. "Of course, Simon," he said. "What's bothering you?"

"It'd be, er, best if we kept our voices down. This concerns one of the more high-profile guests." He nodded his understanding, so I continued, "The Duke of Weselton said something earlier that's, um, got some rather disturbing implications." I repeated to him what I'd overheard the Duke say, and his eyes narrowed.

"That _weasel_ ," he said with distaste. "That's what they should have called it – _Weaseltown_."

"I dare you to say that to his face." I smirked, then my expression turned serious again. "Given the nature of today, I think it would be unwise to confront him openly, so … I suggest simply keeping an eye on him will have to suffice for now."

"You're right, but I think I'll go and have a talk with him, anyway. Just to see if he gives anything away on his own, you know. If what you say is true, Simon, then he can't be the most subtle of men."

"Yes, saying one's evil plans out loud does require a certain degree of stupidity," I agreed. I glanced toward Elsa and Anna, who seemed to be conversing uncomfortably. "Meanwhile, I'll go and see if our princess and newly crowned queen are in need of anything."

We separated, and I, knowing _exactly_ what Anna would be craving, grabbed up one of the plates with the chocolate on it. _Women and their chocolate,_ I thought with a light titter, though it was all in good humour. As I neared the place where Anna and Elsa were stood, I felt my eyes being drawn to Elsa rather than watching where I was going, which, luckily for me, didn't become as big a hazard as it should have been. As I got nearer to them, I saw them start sniffing in the air, and when I finally reached them, I heard the final word of their conversation.

"… _Chocolate_ ," they both said at the same time, then started laughing a little.

"Is right here," I said, presenting the plate in front of them with a smile on my face. "Good to see cravings don't change over the years."

"Don't you know it," Anna said, picking a piece of chocolate off the plate and eating it in a rather unprincess-like manner. I would have laughed under any other circumstances, but given the company in the room, I thought it best not to make it look like I was laughing at the royals.

"Of course I know it. You were rather adamant about there being some at the party." I looked at the older of the two sisters, and the pace of my heart sped up, my face heating up for reasons I could not tell. "Your Majesty." I bowed, unsure of whether or not she would appreciate me calling her by name after all those years. I couldn't keep the smile that formed upon seeing her again off my face, though. "Would you care for some?"

"Just Elsa is fine, Simon … and yes, thank you." She took a piece of chocolate from the plate and ate it much more elegantly than Anna had. She looked me in the eyes, and I was mesmerised by hers. She smiled at me, though there was some discomfort and awkwardness behind it. If it weren't for the fact that I knew she had some freckles, I would have thought her face had gone slightly red. "Thank you for all the cards, by the way. It's very nice of you to keep on doing that."

"It's no problem, really," I said, a little more quickly than I probably should have. I scratched the back of my head, just _knowing_ that my face had gone red. "I've, er … I've missed you."

"… I've missed you, too."

It descended into silence after that. I really didn't know what to say; a number of things came to mind, but none of them seemed quite _right_ , if you understand what I mean. Anna looked like she was about to say something, but there was a bit of an interruption.

"Your Majesty," said Dad, leading a familiar small man from the crowd of guests. "The Duke of Weaseltown."

I barely had the self-control to hold in the laughter that threatened to burst forth from my lips. _Son of a bitch, he_ actually _did it!_ I held in my laughter well enough, but the grin on my face could not be controlled.

" _Weselton_!" the Duke snapped. "The Duke of Weselton." He looked at Elsa. "Your Majesty, as your closest partner in trade, it seems only fitting that I offer you your first dance as queen. It will surely be more entertaining for you that conversing with the rabble." He briefly gave me the stink-eye. Then he broke into one of the strangest, most dysfunctional dances I have ever seen in my life. It was a complete mess. At the end of it, he took a bow, and the grey hair on his head _flapped forward_ , revealing that he was wearing a toupee.

I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to prevent from bursting out laughing. Elsa and Anna both looked like they were experiencing similar problems. The amusement I felt far outweighed the fact that he had just insulted me.

Elsa cleared her throat. "Thank you … only I don't dance."

"Oh?" the Duke asked, sounding mildly offended.

"But my sister does," said Elsa.

"What?" asked Anna.

"Lucky you," the Duke said, taking Anna by the arm.

"Oh, I don't think—"

The Duke yanked her into the crowd, not paying any attention to her protests. "If you swoon, let me know, I'll catch you."

"Sorry," Elsa said, smirking a little.

I let a chuckle slip through my lips. "Letting your sister go off with that old bugger?" I asked in false shock and disapproval. "For shame, Elsa. For shame!"

She laughed. "Well _I_ certainly wasn't going to dance with someone who insults my old friend," she said.

"No, of course not, you're just going to let your sister do it." I grinned. "While I can't say my actual thoughts out loud in a public setting, they go something along the lines of: I greatly dislike that man."

"I can see that."

It descended into silence again. I wanted to say so many things, but there was one particular thing I wanted to say above all others. It was on the tip of my tongue, but I myself had no idea what it was. I think I remembered saying it in a joking manner when we were children, but in truth it wasn't a joke, and it was even less so now.

"It's good to see you again," I blurted out rather suddenly. My face was heating up again. "I've been working an awful lot these last few years, and I haven't had much time to just spend with friends. And you – you _and_ Anna," I corrected myself, "have always been my best friends. I guess I … um … Well, it's just felt like something's been missing while you were gone, is all."

My eyes had drifted down to my shoes, and my face felt like all the heat of the sun had been pumped into it. I could have sworn my heart was going to explode out of my chest any second.

The feeling of a gloved hand on my shoulder made me look up again. Elsa was smiling at me, and it made my breath hitch in my throat.

"It's good to see the both of you, too," she said.

Anna came through the crowd, groaning and limping a little.

"Well, he was sprightly," said Elsa.

"Especially for a man in heels," said Anna, rubbing her undoubtedly sore feet.

"If it takes heels to make him _that_ tall, I bet seeing him without them would be hilarious," I said.

"Oh, Simon, don't be mean," said Anna, but she was laughing, and so was Elsa. The three of us stayed like that for a few moments, laughing amongst ourselves. For a brief moment, I saw us as we were, just three little kids trying to pass time in a large castle. It seemed so close, yet so far away. "This is so nice. I wish it could be like this all the time."

"I'd love that," I said.

"Me, too," said Elsa. She looked down and her smile faded. "… But it can't."

"Why not?" asked Anna. "If—"

"It just _can't_."

The happiness in my system caught in my throat and became sour. Any hope I had of the three of us spending more days like this died in that exact moment.

"Excuse me for a minute," Anna said. She walked into the party crowd.

Elsa and I stood silently. Elsa had watched Anna go, and she looked saddened by it. I was, too. Just as it had started to feel like it used to …

"Are you okay?" I asked Elsa, concerned.

"… I'm fine," she said after some brief hesitation. She looked me in the eyes, but there was no smile this time. "You should probably go, too."

It felt like I had been physically slapped. Unexpected tears stung the backs of my eyes, but I held them in. I gave a cut nod. "All right," I said, unable to stop it from sounding slightly choked. "Goodbye, Elsa. It was nice seeing you."

Then I walked away.

Disheartened as I was (thinking back, that's probably an understatement), I did my best to keep up an appearance of happiness as I mingled with the guests at the party. I gave help where it was needed, talked when I needed to talk, and was just generally available for whenever I was needed. I think I still gave off a general aura of sadness, though, because people tried to avoid bothering me and just called for one of the other servants unless I was the only one in sight.

Eventually, however, my mood picked up slightly when I ran into a couple of familiar faces.

"Hey, Simon," Eugene greeted me as I was making my way through the room. He honestly looked rather bored.

"Hi, Eugene," I said. "You look like you're enjoying yourself."

"I know, right? Because who _wouldn't_ enjoy a party with slow music and no bar fights."

"While the Snugly Duckling is, admittedly, a much more exciting place for a party, we need to at least try to enjoy this, Eugene," said Rapunzel. Pascal was still on her shoulder. She looked at me. "Hello again, Simon."

"Hello, Rapunzel," I said. "How are you enjoying yourself?"

"I'm enjoying myself fine. This place is nice. Not like Corona, but nice."

"Good. Lemme guess: they let you bring in Pascal, but a horse was a little too big for them?"

She laughed. "Got it in one."

"What are you, psychic?" Eugene asked jokingly.

"Yes, and I can tell you for a fact that someone is going to take offence to that mess of a goatee and kill you for it." I found myself grinning, my mood improving by the second. "I take it it's safe to assume Maximus is in the stable?"

"Yes, but he's not very happy about it," said Rapunzel. "Maximus has a lot of pride, and he likes being able to move around places. I think he finds the stables restricting."

"Well, I'll take him some apples out later. See if that'll cheer him up."

"Prepare to be followed everywhere until we have to leave, buddy," said Eugene. "Changing topic, I saw you chatting with the queen and the princess a little while ago. You looked pretty comfortable. There a story behind that?"

"Not much of one," I said, shrugging. I felt slightly uncomfortable discussing this topic given what had happened before, so I wanted to get the conversation off this line of inquiry as soon as I could. "My parents are both servants here, too – well, Dad's the overseer, but you get the point. They both live here in the servants' quarters, and since they were working here when I was born, I ended up growing up here. There weren't a lot of other children around the castle, so I ended up making friends with the princesses. That about sums it up."

"Huh …" Eugene clicked his tongue, then grinned evilly at me. "You sweet on either of 'em?"

I then found out that it was entirely possible to choke on air. "I, um, er … w-what?" I sputtered out.

" _Eugene_ , be nice," Rapunzel scolded him.

"I'll, er, just go get you two some drinks," I said, then made a quick exit. As I went to get them some wine, I took deep breaths in an attempt to cool down the raging blush that had taken over my face. My efforts were not in vain, and my blush did die down eventually, but my mind was still playing what Eugene had said over and over again. The word "yes" and an image of Elsa's face flashed in my mind, but I wiped it away. Yes, that may have explained why I never took any romantic interest in any girls growing up, but just because it made sense didn't mean it was okay. _The servant and the queen? Yeah, I bet_ that _will go down well with the high-class snobs. Besides …_

" _You should probably go, too."_

Elsa's words form earlier, along with all the times she had told me to go away whenever I knocked on her door, rang through my head.

… _I'm not so sure she really likes having me around any more._

I got the wine, did my best to put my happy face back in place, and returned to Eugene and Rapunzel. If the subdued look on Eugene's face and the satisfied one on Rapunzel's were anything to go by, she had thoroughly scolded him for his behaviour. That was nice, but unnecessary – despite the effect if had on me, it was all in good humour, and I could honestly say that I would have said something similar if I were on his side of the conversation.

"Here are your drinks," I said, presenting wine glasses. "Now, I need to go and do my job more, but if you need anything at all, I'll be around. See you guys later."

Just before I could hand them the wine and walk away, however, I caught sight of something curious, and I just had to stop and observe.

"Oops! Pardon. Sorry."

I distinctly heard Anna's voice from somewhere in the crowd. A mere few moments later, I saw her, and she was pulling Prince Hans by the hand. That made me feel a little odd instantly. Maybe she was in a hurry and just wanted him to keep up? It was when they reached Elsa, who had begun mingling with the crowd, however, that thing got very interesting in the worst of ways.

"I mean … Queen … Me again," Anna said, awkwardly. "May I present Prince Hans of the Souther Isles."

"Your Majesty," Prince Hans said, bowing.

Elsa gave a polite but reserved curtsey in response.

"We would like …" said Anna.

"Your blessing …" said Prince Hans.

"… of …"

"… _our marriage_!" they both finished together.

There was a sudden smashing sound from somewhere very close, and I became very aware that there were rather a lot of eyes on me. It took me less than a second to realise that, in my shock, I had dropped the wine glasses to the floor.

"Oh shi— _language, Simon_!" I growled to myself, not wanting to curse in the middle of the party. I looked up at Rapunzel and Eugene, who were both looking at me in concern. "I am _so_ sorry. I'll just, er, get this cleaned up." I bent down and started to move all the broken glass into one area of the floor, thinking that it would be easier to clean up that way. I kept taking little glances at Elsa, Anna, and Prince Hans, though, and from the way my eyes occasionally met Elsa's, she knew _exactly_ why I had dropped those glasses. _At_ earliest _she could have met him this morning!_ I yelled in my mind.

" _Marriage_?" Elsa asked, shocked.

"Yes!" Anna said, as if it wasn't a big deal.

"I'm sorry, I'm confused."

"Well, we haven't worked out all the details ourselves. We'll need a few days to plan the ceremony. Of course we'll have to have soup, roast, and ice-cream, and then— Wait. Would we live here?"

"Here?"

"Absolutely!" Prince Hans agreed, enthusiastically.

"Anna—"

"Oh, we can invite all _twelve_ of your brothers to stay with us—"

"What?" I felt rather sympathetic towards Elsa in that moment. She sounded confused and distressed at the same time. "No, no, no, no, no."

"Of course we have the room." Anna spoke as if Elsa had said nothing at all. "I don't know. Some of them must—"

"Wait. Slow down. No one's brothers are staying here. No one is getting married."

"Wait, what?" Anna asked in confusion.

"May I talk to you, please? Alone."

Anna hooked arms with Hans. "No. Whatever you have to say, you can say to both of us."

"Fine. You can't marry a man you just met."

 _As if that shouldn't be obvious,_ I thought, wondering just when it had been that Anna had _lost her mind_!

"You can if it's true love," Anna argued.

"Anna, what do you know about true love?"

"More than you. All you know is how to shut people out."

I got the feeling Elsa would have flinched if she weren't so good at steeling herself. "You asked for my blessing, but my answer is no. Now, excuse me."

Prince Hans said, "Your Majesty, if I may ease your—"

"No, you may not. And I … I think you should go." She walked away, stopping briefly beside one of the other servants. "The party is over. Close the gates."

"What?" Anna asked, dismayed. "Elsa, no. No, wait!" She made a grab for Elsa's hand, but ended up pulling off one of the blue gloves instead.

Elsa gasped, and I saw a look of very real horror and dismay cross her face. She spun around and made a grab at her glove in a panic. "Give me my glove!" she said.

Anna made a point of keeping the glove out of Elsa's reach. "Elsa, please," she pleaded. "Please. I can't live like this any more."

"… Then leave."

… I could literally _feel_ the tension in the air after Elsa had uttered those words. Even I started to feel tense and worried. If Elsa went back to never showing her face, and Anna did as she said and left, I would lose both of my best friends in one go. The thought of that filled me with a despair worse than any I had felt before, and I couldn't hold myself back from getting involved in the conversation any longer.

"You two have started being a little dramatic over this now, don't you think?" I asked, cautiously making my way forward. "I'm sure you can talk this out in a nice, calm wa—"

"What did I ever do to you!?" Anna asked Elsa, her face being the dictionary definition of hurt.

"Enough, Anna," said Elsa, turning away.

"No," said Anna. "Why? Why do you shut me out!? Why do you shut the _world_ out!? What are you so afraid of!?"

"I said, _enough_!"

In the split second before the _real_ shock came to me, my eyes were drawn to Elsa's ungloved hand as she swung it around when she turned to face Anna. I briefly noticed a blue glow, but then I took an involuntary step backward as the blue glow _shot_ out of her hand and onto the floor, and giant icicles suddenly spiked out of the floor. I let out a strangled gasp as I felt the cold tip of something press against my neck. _If I hadn't taken that step back, that would've scoured my throat,_ I thought, wide-eyed. When my mind once again caught up with what was happening, I turned my eyes back to Elsa … and so did everyone else in the room.

The crowd were all muttering amongst themselves, staring at Elsa in varied looks of shock and fear.

"Elsa …" I said, and I think I heard Anna saying it, too. But if anything, Elsa seemed to take it as her cue to start running. "Elsa!"

I grabbed the icicle that was up against my throat, and I carefully moved away from it; I wasn't going to be much good to anyone if I somehow managed to impale _my own throat_ on it after so narrowly avoiding it before. That done, I made to move around the semi-circle of icicles and go after Elsa. But I felt my arm being grabbed.

"Simon … what just happened?" Eugene asked. He didn't look scared like the others. Nor did Rapunzel, for that matter. They just looked confused.

"I'm don't really know myself," I said. "But if you'd excuse me, I think I'd better go after her."

I pulled out of his grip and got moving. I made for the front door, knowing that, if she had wanted to escape, that would have been the logical place to go. (It didn't occur to me at the time how lucky I was that I turned out to be right – I would imagine that logic was hardly on Elsa's mind at the time.) I could see out of the doors, and the Duke of Weselton and his two thuggish bodyguards had fallen to the floor.

"Monster … monster!" the Duke exclaimed, pointing at a terrified-looking Elsa, who was standing in front of a frozen fountain.

"Elsa!" I yelled, but she ran again. I exited the doors of the castle, and delivered a swift slap to the back of the Duke's head on my way past. I was in no mood for his shit.

"Elsa!" came Anna's voice from close behind me. There was more than one set of footsteps, but I didn't turn around to check who else was there.

I followed Elsa's easy-to-follow trail out of a set of gates, and I stopped briefly when I noticed she was standing on the edge of the fjord.

"Elsa!" yelled Anna, who was now stood right next to me. "Wait, please!"

Elsa glanced in our direction, but turned away quickly. I saw her take a step into the water, and for one terrifying moment I thought she was trying to drown herself, but then she started running _across_ the water, freezing it into a kind of pathway as she went. The second I saw that she was running again, I started moving down the stairs, taking them two at a time in order to pick up speed.

"Elsa!" I called out.

"Elsa, stop!" cried Anna. As we reached the edge of the ice, however, she slipped and fell. My feet slipped and slid, and in spite of the desperation I felt to reach Elsa, I knew it would be unwise to keep going, so I stopped.

"Anna!" Prince Hans said in worry, moving to help Anna up.

 _That would explain the other footsteps,_ I thought.

"No …" said Anna in despair.

Prince Hans gasped. "Look … the fjord …"

I just barely noticed the snow and the full freezing of the water at first. My eyes could focus on little but Elsa's rapidly shrinking form in the distance.

All I could do is watch as the woman I've loved since childhood ran away.

* * *

 **Well, folks, this is the concept I'm running with. The "childhood friend" concept is very overused in other categories, but since I've come across so few _Frozen_ OC stories that take place during the events of the movie, I thought it would be safe to use it. And don't worry, I know that this is a rather large amount of emotion to include in one chapter, but due to the events of the movie itself, I'm having to rush a little to get the romance aspect going. I hope you don't mind.**

 **I couldn't resist the urge to make a _Game of Thrones_ joke in the title, for which I apologise (but not really).**

 **So, from looking it up, turns out the bishop is speaking Ancient Norse during the coronation scene. Who knew?**

 **Oh, and while I may be able to proofread this before I release it, it's not likely. I started it a little late, and I'm becoming increasingly more certain as time goes on that I won't be finished by Christmas. Still, I'm going to damn well try.**

 **This chapter also includes what is likely the only piece of original song-writing you'll see from me. Because I don't know if you've noticed, but I kinda suck at it.**

 **That'll be all for now, Constant Readers. See you next chapter.**


	2. They Don't Hang Horse Thieves I Hope

Horse Thieves Don't Get Hanged … I Hope

As Anna, Prince Hans, and I made our way slowly back to the castle courtyard, I allowed the events I had just witnessed to play back through my mind again. _Elsa can use magic …_ I thought, still very much in shock. Ice _magic._ The one thing that my mind kept turning back to, no matter how hard I tried to think on everything else, was the look on Elsa's face. She'd looked scared, _terrified_ even, and if the way she had run away without turning back was any indication, she was even more scared than she'd looked.

My heart broke thinking about it. And I knew one thing for definite: I _needed_ to find her.

 _Discovering that you've been in love with someone since childhood seems to have quite the effect,_ I thought to myself. The realisation had been building up all day. There were over ten years' worth of feelings that had come rushing to the surface of my mind all throughout the day, and despite how much I had denied it to myself, thinking that it was just the excitement of the day getting to me, I couldn't deny it any longer.

I was very much in love with Elsa.

The implications of a servant being in love with the Queen were the last thing on my mind. My actions were being fuelled by emotion alone.

So in control were my emotions that I barely even noticed the fact that it was snowing in July.

"Snow …?" someone in the crowd asked in confusion. "It's … snow … in July …"

"… Are you all right?" Prince Hans asked Anna.

"No …" Anna said weakly, still in shock.

"Did you know?"

"No." Anna turned around to face me. "Did _you_ know, Simon? You two spent a lot of time together when we were kids."

"I didn't have a clue," I said honestly. I became aware that my breath was coming out in mist. "Man … I knew Elsa was acting cold, but I wasn't expecting anything like this …"

Poor time to be making jokes? Maybe, but that was the only way I knew to deal with stress.

"Look!" cried the Duke of Weselton nearby. "It's snowing! It's snowing! The Queen has cursed this land! She must be stopped!" He grabbed one of his two thugs by the head and pulled him down. "You have to go after her."

"Wait, no!" said Anna.

The Duke moved his two thugs in front of him and hid behind them. "You! Is there sorcery in you, too? Are you a monster, too?"

"No. No. I'm completely ordinary."

Prince Hans put a hand on Anna's shoulder. "That's right, she is …" he said. Anna gave him a look, which he definitely noticed. "… in the best way."

 _Not the best save I've ever seen, but apparently it works,_ I thought. It was mostly to distract myself from the anger that I suddenly felt toward the Duke. It was his cry of "Monster!" that had truly effected Elsa – I had seen so on her face for the split-second I had been able to see it after the words were spoken. I had disliked him before, but I think it was this moment that made me truly start to hate the man.

"And my sister is not a monster," said Anna.

"She nearly killed me," said the Duke.

"You slipped on ice," said Prince Hans.

It was at around this point that I found myself liking Prince Hans. From what little I had spoken to him at the docks, he seemed genuinely polite, and judging from this situation, it seemed to me that he had a level head and never jumped to conclusions. The word "likeable" just seemed to suit the man in some strange way. That being said, I was still a little confused by the fact that he had proposed to Anna after only knowing her for a day. It made me think that his mental state may not be all it appeared to be.

" _Her_ ice!" argued the Duke.

"Do you blame the sun when you get burned, then?" I asked. "Because that's the kind of logic you're working on."

The Duke glared at me. " _You_ ," he said, pointing at me. For a moment I thought he was going to call me out on hitting him, but apparently he was a lot more stupid than I'd thought. "I saw you run past after I got hit in the head. Did you see who did it?"

"Er …" I darted my eyes from side to side awkwardly, "… no."

"Look, this was an _accident_ ," said Anna. "Elsa was scared. She didn't mean it. She didn't mean any of this … Tonight was my fault. I pushed her. So I'm the one that needs to go after her."

That gave me pause. Was Anna going after Elsa really a good idea? She may not have done any of this on purpose, but she was clearly in distress, so the chances of more accidents happening were actually rather high. _Not_ going after her wasn't an option, make no mistake about that, but I just thought that, maybe, a slower approach would have been wiser.

That was what was going through my head, anyway. My emotions were what dictated my actions.

"Bring me my horse please," Anna said to Dad, who was standing nearby, just as shocked by this turn of events as the rest of us.

"No, I should be the one to go," I said. Before Anna could protest, I went on. "Anna, you're my friend, but you're also the _princess_. If you leave, Arendelle has nobody to be in charge. And I'm a servant; it is quite literally my _job_ to do things for you. So please … let me do this."

She seemed to think about something, but I wasn't sure what. Honestly, I don't think she considered my offer for even a second.

"I caused this, so I'm going after her," she said sternly. "I'll bring her back, and I'll make this right."

"I'm coming with you," said Prince Hans.

"No," said Anna, "I need you to take care of Arendelle." She looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "You were saying?"

I just raised my hands, conceding.

"… On my honour," said Prince Hans, putting a hand to his chest.

Dad returned with Anna's horse, which was white with a black and white, striped mane, and a cloak, which Anna put on with his help. She got onto her horse. "I leave Prince Hans in charge!" she announced to the gathered crowd.

"Are you sure you can trust her?" Prince Hans asked her in concern. "I don't want you getting hurt."

Despite my growing liking for the man, that statement irked me. The idea that anyone could think Elsa would hurt Anna annoyed me to no end.

"She's my sister; she would never hurt me," said Anna. She snapped the reins of her horse, and it galloped away.

Seeing the white horse running off put a thought into my head.

"I'm, er … gonna go tend to the stables," I said to Prince Hans. "The horses are probably distressed by the sudden change in weather. And, honestly, I, er … I kinda need something to occupy my mind for the moment. If I have your leave, of course, Your Highness?"

"Of course," said Prince Hans without hesitation. "As a friend to both the Queen and the Princess, this must be very stressful to you. Do as you will."

"Thank you, Your Highness." I bowed, and took my leave.

I got a little way away, and then felt my shoulder being grabbed. It was Dad. He had a look of concern on his face.

"I know the face you pull when you're lying," he said softly. "What are you planning on doing, Simon?"

"… Probably something stupid," I admitted. Then I grinned. "But more likely something crazy." I clapped him on the shoulder. "I'll see you soon. Say bye to Mum for me."

He didn't argue, I assume because he knew what I was like when it came to making decisions, and simply nodded with a resigned look on his face. "Please be careful, son."

"I'll be as careful as I can be. See you."

I walked toward the stables.

The fact that Prince Hans was being so nice made me feel almost bad about lying to him. I was going to the stables, yes, but I wasn't going there to tend to the horses. I picked up a few apples from a fruit stand on my way. It all seemed to simple in my emotionally-driven mind, but the small part of my mind that remained rational (and sounded strangely like my mother) kept on telling me that something would inevitably go wrong.

I was going after Anna and joining up with her to go after Elsa.

And I was going to start by stealing a horse.

Not just any horse, but the most intelligent horse I had ever met.

 _I can't believe I'm about to try to bribe a fucking horse,_ I thought. My Dad would doubtless be horrified if he heard such things said out loud.

I got to the stables, and the snow was already settling onto the ground, coating it in a thin sheet of white that got thicker by the second. I could feel a definite chill in the air now. The cold bit at my hands, ears, and nose, and I blew into my hands in an attempt to gain at least some warmth. I walked past each gate in the stables, darting my eyes quickly from horse to horse, looking for one in particular.

"Maximus!" I called, hoping he would reveal himself.

He did. After I said his name, he stuck his head over the gate of a stable. He looked rather irritated. He saw me, and I thought I could almost see a smile on his long face. His eyes quickly zeroed in on the small bag I had strapped to my side.

"I got you a little treat, boy," I said, opening up the bag and presenting one of the apples in front of him.

He leaned his head over the gate and sniffed at the apple in my hand. Then he gave a happy neigh and snatched it up with his mouth, chewing and swallowing very quickly.

"So, Maximus," I said, and he looked at me. "I … I need your help. I need you to take me somewhere."

His eyes narrowed in what I assumed was suspicion, but he didn't outright refuse. I took that as a sign to continue.

"I'm sure you've noticed how … strange, the weather is for the time of year, right?" I got a nod in response. I realised that Maximus and the other horses looked uncomfortable – probably due to being unable to move in order to raise their body heat in the cold. "Well, you see, the thing is … it was kinda the Queen that did this. But she didn't do it on purpose!" I amended when I saw that Maximus' face was taking on a stern quality. "She got scared, and this happened, but she didn't _mean_ to do it." I took a deep breath. "I … I think I might be able to help stop this. Or, at least, I _want_ to help stop this. I want to help _her_ …"

Maximus' expression noticeably softened. I think that, even then, he knew that my feelings for Elsa were deeper than I said out loud.

I looked into his big, round eyes pleadingly. "Please, Maximus … I need your help." I grinned deviously. "And if that doesn't do anything to convince you … well, let's just say there's plenty more where that apple came from." I tapped the bag at my side.

Maximus fully perked up. He nodded his head rapidly and started scraping one of his front hooves against the gate.

"Well, all right, then." I unlatched the gate of the stable and let Maximus out. I threw him an apple, which he caught in his mouth and ate instantly. "I can't give you all of them at once, because we might have a long journey ahead of us. I'm not really sure how far Elsa will have gotten by now, but we should be able to catch up with Anna quickly enough. She only left a couple of minutes ago."

I climbed onto the saddle on his back, and grasped his reins in my hands.

"Oh, and by the way, no one gave me permission to do this, so I'm technically stealing you," I said.

He looked back at me, and, to my complete and utter surprise, he _grinned_. The way he was looking at me seemed to say "You didn't steal me if I _chose_ to help." Then, at my prompting, he set off in a gallop.

As I felt the cold wind rushing through my hair, I couldn't help but grin. "Ride like the wind, Maximus!" I yelled, and he whinnied in response.

* * *

After we left, it very quickly occurred to me that Anna might have gotten too much of a head start. I rode north on Maximus, as that was the direction Elsa had been going in, and it was the direction Anna was most likely to be in. The snow picked up very quickly. There was around two feet of the stuff by the middle of the next day. It had gotten colder, _much_ colder, and while it still wasn't quite cold enough for me to be concerned with my health, it was still way past chilly at this stage. I fed Maximus a couple more apples, and I even had one myself when I got a little hungry.

Running became no longer an option very quickly. With the rising snow beneath Maximus' hooves, it was taking longer and longer to make any real progress as the day went on. Occasionally we'd come across some ground where it seemed like somebody had already been there due to the intentional-looking breaks in the snowy floor, and we'd be able to pick up some speed, but such instances were few and far between.

It wasn't until night had fallen once again that we came upon Anna … without her horse.

The snow had, quite mercifully, stopped for the time being, but I didn't think we would be lucky enough to have it stop permanently. We were making our way through what appeared to be a kind of "road" dug in the snow, so Maximus could have broken into a run again if he really needed to. But it was late at night, and we were both rather tired, so I let him settle into a faster than usual walk.

It was at the end of this "road," exiting the forest, that we came across the first piece of civilisation we had seen since leaving Arendelle. It was a small shack of sorts that had a chimney with smoke pouring out of it, and through the windows I could see that the place was lit up rather warmly. There was a sign on the front that said _Wandering Oaken's Trading Post_. There was a smaller sign underneath. _And Sauna_. There was a sled outside, and nearby there appeared to a shed or a small barn that had its roof coated in snow.

Deciding that it was a good idea to go inside the building and ask if anyone had passed through recently, I urged Maximus to a stop and climbed off him. Just as I hit the ground, the door to the shack opened, and by some cosmic coincidence it was Anna herself who was leaving. She was in a different dress to the one I had last seen her in, this one more warm-looking, and she was wearing a pair of boots, too. She was wearing a pair of mittens on her hands for warmth. She had the hood of her cloak up, and there was a bag hanging around her shoulder.

"Anna!" I said in relief, approaching her as swiftly as I could manage in the snow.

"Simon?" she said, confused. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you _I_ was going."

"You did, and the message was received. But I care about Elsa, too, and I wouldn't have felt right if I didn't do something to try and help. So … here I am, I guess. Oh, this is Maximus." I gestured to Maximus, who had come up beside me.

Maximus, apparently knowing he was in the presence of royalty, leaned his long head down in a polite bow.

"Oh, a horse!" Anna said, looking both happy and disheartened. "And after I bought all this so that the guy with the sled would give me a ride to the North Mountain …" She looked down at her bag.

"Well, to be fair, it's not like you're struggling for money," I said, grinning slightly. Then I thought for a moment and got serious again. "It'd probably be a good idea for you to ride in a sled, anyway. If we're going up the North Mountain, it might be a little too treacherous for two people to be able to safely ride on a horse. So you should probably stick with that plan." I heard some string guitar music, or something similar, emanating from the snow-covered shed. I looked between the sled and the shed. "Is the guy who owns the sled in there?"

"Seems like it," said Anna.

"Huh … I wonder what pulls it …?" I shook the idle thought from my mind. "Not important, I guess. So, shall we go talk to him?"

"Yeah."

Anna and I made our way toward the shed, Maximus following closely behind. We stopped outside the door when we heard a man singing from inside.

 _Reindeers are better than people.  
_ _Sven, don't you think that's true?_

His voice took on a deeper quality for the next line, like he was mimicking somebody.

 _Yeah, people will beat you, and curse you, and cheat you,  
_ _Every one of 'em's bad, except you_

"Aww, thanks, buddy," said the man, not singing this time.

 _But people smell better than reindeers.  
_ _Sven, don't you think I'm right?_

His voice took on that deep quality again.

 _That's once again true,  
_ _For all except you._

His voice went back to normal.

 _You got me.  
_ _Let's call it a night._

Deep.

 _Goodnight._

Normal.

 _Don't let the frostbite bite …_

Anna seemed to take this apparent end to the song as a cue to go in. "Nice duet," she said as she pushed through the door. I went in after her, and Maximus stayed outside for the time being.

The man jumped slightly upon our entry, as did his animal companion, which was, true to his song, a reindeer.

 _How the hell did the reindeer even get in here …?_ I wondered. The door looked far too small to fit a creature of his size through it.

"Oh, it's just you," said the man. He had blonde hair that looked like he hadn't brushed it at all in his life. His brown eyes were hard, but with a hint of playfulness. What he wore was little more than rags by most standards, but it covered his body well enough, and the fact that there were several stitches on his clothes made me think he was practised in mending his clothes on the fly. He was a big, bulky guy. It must be a requirement for travelling, which his sled and reindeer would indicate he did often. He looked, exasperated, at Anna. "What do you want?"

"I want you to take me up the North Mountain," said Anna.

"I have a horse outside, but I don't think it's a good idea for us to both be on it while riding up a mountain," I said. "Plus, I'm not that good with directions. Never really been out of Arendelle before, actually. We'd be really grateful if you could help us."

The man looked between us, disbelieving, and then simply laid down on the hay. "I don't take people places," he said, putting his wool hat over his eyes.

"Let me rephrase that," said Anna. Then she threw her bag at him.

It landed on his stomach, and apparently the contents were so heavy that the impact winded him. He sat up suddenly, grunting. "Hey," he said weakly, starting to glare.

"Take me up the North Mountain," Anna said assertively. "Please."

The reindeer sniffed at the bag, prompting the man to look inside it. He pulled out a length of rope and a pickaxe. He looked up at Anna suspiciously, and eyebrow raised.

"Look, we know how to stop this winter," said Anna. "Simon has a horse, but we need you to help us get to the mountain."

The man sighed and laid down again, putting the hat back over his eyes. "We leave at dawn," he said. "And you forgot the carrots for Sven."

Anna then flung a second back – one which even _I_ hadn't seen – at the man. This one hit him in the head. He yelled out slightly this time as some carrots fell out of the open bag. He sat up, rubbing his head.

"Nice throw, Anna," I said. "Bad aim, but a nice throw."

"Oh, I'm sorry, sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean …" Anna stopped apologising, stood tall, and cleared her throat. "We leave now. Right now." She walked out the door as confidently as she could manage.

I looked at the man and simply tilted my head to the side as if to say "What are you gonna do?" Then I walked out after Anna. "Not the best save in the world, but it seems to have worked," I said to her, grinning. "I guess you and Prince Hans have something in common."

"Shut up," said Anna. Then she smiled. "I've got to admit, I'm really glad you showed up. When find Elsa and get her to come home, it'll be just like old times."

I smiled. "I hope so, too." I took an apple from my bag and threw it to Maximus. "Hope you've enjoyed the rest, Maximus, because we'll be setting out again in a couple of minutes."

He breathed out in what I assumed was a sight, giving me a deadpan look. But he didn't really argue.

"Sorry, buddy, but it's for the best. We have to get the weather back to normal."

He nodded solemnly. Then he walked up to me, and I climbed on. Anna and I waited for awhile, then the man and his reindeer came out, and the lot of us set off.

* * *

After getting fully introduced to one another – the man's name was Kristoff, and, as he'd stated before, the reindeer was Sven – Anna climbed into his sled, and he strapped Sven into it. Then he cracked the reins, and I got Maximus running again.

"Hang on," Kristoff said to Anna. "We like to go fast."

"I like fast," Anna said, smiling, as she put her feet up on the front of the sled.

"Whoa," said Kristoff, gesturing for Anna to remove her feet, which she did. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Get your feet down. This is fresh lacker. Seriously, were you raised in a barn?" He spat on the wood where Anna's feet had been and rubbed away at it with the sleeve of the large coat he was now wearing. He also had a pair of gloves on.

Anna made a disgusted sound. "No, I was raised in a castle," she said.

"So was I," I said as I rode beside them on Maximus. "But, to be fair, I probably have a much greater appreciation for keeping things clean than you do, Anna. Y'know, considering I've been cleaning that place up for years now."

Kristoff hummed.

I didn't know what to think of him just yet. I was grateful enough to him for helping us get to Elsa, but the fact that he seemed to be doing so only because Anna gave him the stuff made me feel conflicted. On one hand I could understand; one can't be expected to do huge favours for free all the time, especially people who spend a lot of time on the road, like Kristoff probably did. On the other hand, however, it seemed almost like he was trying to profit from our troubles.

 _Only time will tell, I guess,_ I thought.

I had noticed that Sven was an incredibly intelligent animal, much like Maximus and possibly Pascal. (I hadn't seen enough of the latter to know if he had this degree of intelligence or not.) I started to think that maybe my castle life was a lot more sheltered than I had previously thought. Until this turn of events, I'd had no idea animals could be this intelligent.

"So tell me: what made the Queen go all ice crazy?" asked Kristoff.

"Oh, well … it was all my fault," said Anna. "I got engaged, and then she freaked out because I had only just met him. You know, that day. And she said she wouldn't bless the marriage. And—"

"Wait," said Kristoff, shocked. "You got engaged to someone you just met that day?"

I laughed a little at his reaction. Maximus made a sound that I only assumed was laughter.

"Yeah. Anyway, I got mad, and so she got mad, and she tried to walk away, and I grabbed her glove, and—"

"Hang on," Kristoff said abruptly, turning to face Anna with a look of disbelief on his face. "You mean to tell me you got engaged to someone you just met _that day_?"

I exploded into full-on laughter this time. "Tell me about it, man!" I said. "I didn't comment on it at the time, because I dropped some glasses, and then Elsa froze everything, but I've been having the exact same thoughts." I noticed Anna giving me a look. "Hans is nice, though, don't get me wrong. I definitely like that guy." She nodded, turned away, and I let out a breath of relief.

"But the thing is," she continued saying to Kristoff, "she wore the gloves all the time, so I just thought maybe she has a thing about dirt."

"Didn't your parents ever warn you about strangers?" asked Kristoff.

Anna looked at him warily, then backed as far to her side of the sled as she could. "Yes they did," she said. Kristoff rolled his eyes at her. "But Hans is not a stranger."

"Oh yeah? What's his last name?"

"Of the Southern Isles."

"What's his favourite food?"

"Sandwiches."

"Best friend's name?"

"Probably John."

"Eye colour?"

"Dreamy."

"Foot size?"

"Foot size doesn't matter."

"Ha!" I laughed loudly at her unintentional innuendo.

"Have you had a meal with him yet?" Kristoff asked. "What if you hate the way he eats? What if you hate the way he picks his nose?"

"Picks his _nose_?" Anna asked, disgusted.

"And _eats_ it," said Kristoff.

"Excuse me, sir, he is a _prince_."

Kristoff smiled smugly. "All men do it."

" _I_ certainly don't," I said, glancing at him as best I could considering we were using different modes of transport. "That's disgusting. You're disgusting."

He looked over at me. "Liar," he said.

"Look, it doesn't matter," Anna said to Kristoff. "It's true love."

"It doesn't sound like true love," said Kristoff.

Anna scoffed. "Are you some sort of love expert?"

Kristoff hesitated. "No … but I have friends who are." He looked over at me again. "And they'd tell you that _this guy_ is in love. I can see it in his eyes."

"… You are mistaken, sir," I said, trying to avoid letting the red rush to my face. It was cold, so I was already pretty red, anyway, but I was still paranoid.

"Oh yeah? What's got _you_ going after the Queen, then? You seem awfully close with the royals."

"He is," said Anna. "The three of us grew up together. Honestly, he's like my brother. That doesn't mean he's in love with my sister."

"Yeah, Anna's like my sister," I said.

"What about _her_ sister?" asked Kristoff.

I had no response to give him. Anna looked my way with slightly wide eyes when I didn't respond, but quickly shook her head of whatever thoughts were going through them. "Why should I believe you?" she asked Kristoff. "I mean, _you_ have friends who are love experts? I'm not buying it."

"Stop talking," said Kristoff, suddenly serious. He slowed Sven down, and I did the same with Maximus, sensing that we were now in a very serious situation.

"No, no, no, no, no," said Anna. "I'd like to meet these—"

Kristoff shoved one of his hands against her mouth to shut her up. "Stop talking." She brushed his hand off, then went to speak again, but he shushed her. He stood up in his sled and lifted up the lantern he had in it, looking around intently. Sven looked around, ears perked up, and Maximus did something similar, though with much more energy and suspicion. Kristoff looked off into the darkness behind us, and I did the same. After a moment or two, I saw several sets of luminescent eyes, and heard a series of deep growling noises.

 _Well … damn …_ I thought, gulping.

"Sven, go!" Kristoff said, and Sven was off running.

"Maximus, get us the hell out of here!" I said frantically, but Maximus was already running. He had caught up with, and even slightly overtaken, the others in no time flat.

"What are they?" asked Anna.

"Wolves," said Kristoff.

"Wolves?"

I wasn't sure what Anna and Kristoff were doing in the sled because I was too busy keeping my eyes ahead and trying not to look at the wolves, but I could hear what was happening.

"What do we do?" asked Anna.

"I got this," said Kristoff. "Just don't fall off and don't get eaten."

"But I wanna help!"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't trust your judgement."

" _Excuse me_."

"Who marries a _man_ she just met." The word "man" was accompanied by a grunt of exertion.

"It's true love!"

"Whoa!" There was the sound of an impact and breaking wood. "Whoa …" There was a series of violent barks, and Kristoff gave off a yell.

"Christopher!" yelled Anna.

"It's _Kristoff_!"

I risked a look over my shoulder and saw that Kristoff was clinging to the back of his sled with the wolves hot on his heels. Two of them lunged, and there was one attached to each of Kristoff's legs by its teeth.

I turned my head to look behind me, checking to make sure none of them were too close. There was one that was running faster than the others, and it was getting uncomfortably close to Maximus and I.

"Maximus, kick!" I yelled.

Maximus did just that, and while it slowed us down somewhat, the cry of pain the wolf let out before it was knocked to the floor sent relief flooding through my body.

Anna lit a big bag – probably a sleeping bag or something – on fire using a torch that had probably been made while I wasn't looking. Then she took the flaming bag and hurled it at the two wolves that were attached to Kristoff, hitting them and freeing him.

"You almost set me on fire!" Kristoff exclaimed as he climbed back into the sled.

"But I didn't!" was Anna's clever response.

Sven made a sudden, loud grunting sound, which prompted me to look in the direction Maximus was running once again. Just ahead of us was a sheer cliff face which, while leading down into more snow, didn't look like it'd be any fun to fall down.

"Crap!" I cursed. "You good to jump that, Maximus?"

Maximus simply nodded.

Once again, I opted to look where we were going. I wrapped my arms tightly around Maximus' neck and braced for the inevitable jump.

"Get ready to jump, Sven!" I heard Anna yell.

"You don't tell him what to do," said Kristoff. "I do!"

Anna gave off a yell.

"Jump, Sven!" Kristoff shouted.

Maximus reached the edge of the drop and leapt. The sudden feeling of flight overtook me, and it was both exhilarating and terrifying. I squeezed my eyes shut as we began to descend. While this whole thing lasted only a few seconds, to me it felt like we were in the air for hours, and my stomach felt a little light because of it. When we finally hit solid ground again it was with a thud that almost unhorsed me, and would have, if not for my strong grip.

Anna landed next to me on Sven. I heard Kristoff yell, and I heard an impact. I turned around and saw that he had landed just on the edge of the drop … but his sled was gone. The wolves stood snarling on the other side of the gap.

I sighed in relief. The animal kingdom still had its share of unintelligent beasts, it seemed.

Kristoff looked down. "But I just paid it off …" he said in despair. Then one of his arms slipped. "Uh oh." He began to slip, trying to gain a hand-hold in the snow, but to no avail. "No, no, no, no …"

I jumped off Maximus and began to run toward him. _Come on, come on, come on …_ I thought as I ran, but I needn't have worried.

The pickaxe from before landed in front of him, seemingly out of nowhere. It was attached to the rope.

"Grab on!" Anna called out. I turned and saw that the other end of the rope was attached to Sven. "Pull, Sven, pull!"

Sven walked forward, and Kristoff, who was grabbing onto the pickaxe, was pulled out of danger and onto the ground. I let out the breath I had been holding, and a smile came across my face. We had all gotten out fine.

Well, Kristoff's sled was gone, but otherwise we were fine.

* * *

 **And that's chapter two, Constant Readers! I hope you've enjoyed it.**

 **As you can see, Simon has taken Maximus with him, because I love that bloody horse. I hope I've managed to accurately portray his personality, but we'll have to see. And Kristoff, being raised by the "love experts," has already sussed out that Simon is in love with Elsa. How do you think Anna will react to this once she's stopped doubting Kristoff's words about them? You'll find out soon enough.**

 **I'm using the T rating in a similar manner to the 12A (or PG-13 if you're from anywhere other than Britain) rating for movies. I can swear and show some violence, but I only get one use of the F-bomb (which I used this chapter) and it can't be in a conversation about sex. So I should still be good.**

 **See you in chapter three!**


	3. It's Alive! Kill it with Fire!

It's Alive! Kill it With Fire!

"Whoa …" Anna said, looking over the edge of the cliff.

" 'Whoa' is right," I said, wiping some sweat from my forehead. "Chased down and nearly eaten by wolves … I'm _never_ telling my parents about this." I felt something hard hit my shoulder. "Ow!" I looked and saw Maximus with one of his front hooves raised. He was glaring at me lightly. "Okay, okay, 'nearly eaten by wolves' isn't giving you enough credit. You did great, buddy. Thanks for saving my life." I threw him one of the apples from my bag. I looked into it and frowned. "There's only a few left. We'll have to conserve them from now on."

He didn't look particularly happy at the thought of that.

Kristoff was still lying in the snow, groaning.

"I'll replace your sled," said Anna, "and … everything in it. And … I understand if you don't wanna help us any more." She moved away, looking down at her feet.

I planned on following, but there was something I wanted to say to Kristoff first.

"Try not to blame her. Or both of us, if that's the mindset you've taken," I said. He looked up at me. His eyes were basically slits. "You were going up the North Mountain anyway, right? Yeah, okay, you might have been planning on going in the morning, but you'd still have passed through those wolves' territory. About all our presence did was make it so that more people were there." I looked up to see that Anna hadn't gotten far. "Well, I'm gonna go with her. Bye, Kristoff. Sven."

I started to walk off. Maximus walked beside me, looking rather exhausted from the ordeal.

"Hold up!" came Kristoff's voice. He sounded very much like a man who thought he'd regret his next statement. "We're coming!"

That brought a smile to my face.

"You are!?" Anna exclaimed in joy. "I mean, sure, I'll let you tag along," she said in a more confident, casual tone.

I laughed and shook my head at her. _Never change, Anna. Never change._

I waited for Kristoff to catch up before I started walking again. Sven had no trouble just bounding on past. When Kristoff reached where I was, I started walking in pace with him.

"So, Kristoff, I've been wondering about something," I said to him. "Why is it that you were heading up the North Mountain? You don't have some kind of hero complex, do you? No offence or anything, but you don't seem like the type for that."

"None taken," he said. Then he sighed. "Well, basically, this whole eternal winter thing is _really_ screwing up my work."

"Oh? What do you do?"

"I sell ice for a living."

"Ah … I can see how this might make things problematic for you …"

"Yeah, no kidding. Kinda hard to sell something when it's absolutely everywhere twenty-four seven." He looked at me, grinning slightly. "Why are _you_ doing this? I still stand by my theory, but I'd like to hear how you put it."

"Well, I grew up with them, didn't I?" I said, huffing. "I think we've already covered this. My parents were servants at the castle – still are, as a matter of fact – and I was raised there, so I spent a lot of time with the only other people around who were my age: the two princesses. I care about both of them, and I don't want to see either one hurt. Isn't that enough of a reason?"

"Normally it would be. But see, with the way you are around Anna, I don't have any trouble believing you're just friends. That look in your eye when it comes to talking about the Queen, though … It's small, but it's there. There's no point hiding it, not from me. I grew up with people who practically make it their _job_ to notice that kind of thing."

"You're not diving into that again, are you?" Anna asked as we fully caught up with her. "Simon is _not_ in love with my sister … are you?" She turned to face me.

"N-No …" I said, cursing myself for stuttering. That even sounded like lying to my own ears.

Anna fixed me with a scrutinising gaze for a moment, but then simply turned to look ahead. Maybe she believed me, maybe she felt there were more important things to think about, I still don't know. But it wasn't the last time this topic of conversation came up.

I saw Maximus come up next to me from the corner of my eye, and turned to face him. He wiggled his eyebrows at me suggestively. I blushed and brought up a hand to push his face away. He gave of another laugh-like whinny and trotted ahead slightly to walk with Sven. They seemed to be getting along.

The journey from then on was made in mostly silence. It started to take a lot of effort to walk, because the journey was now taking us up, and that meant we had to walk up slopes that were covered in snow. Walking quickly was no easy feat, and it wasn't one we managed to accomplish. I also noted that the higher we got the colder it got. I severely regretted not bringing a coat or a cloak or something to wear over my blue suit, which was now looking tattered and creased, and there was even a rip in one of the sleeves, most likely from the jump over the gap.

 _Mum'll throw a fit when she sees me like this,_ I thought, shuddering at the mental image that came to mind.

On one of the very few breaks from the constant steepness we got, Anna turned to look around and released a gasp that drew all our attentions to what she was looking at. From where we were, I could see Arendelle … and it wasn't looking good. The water of the fjord and as far as I could see was ice, and the city itself was so coated with snow I could barely see anything but the pure white of it. I suddenly had images of Mum and Dad shivering, their breath coming out frozen, and I tried my best to think about something else.

Maximus was next to me. His ears had drooped, there was a look of sadness about him, and he scraped one hoof tentatively across the floor.

"Worried about Eugene, Rapunzel, and Pascal?" I asked. He nodded. I put on a smile that was half fake. "Don't worry, I'm sure they're …"

I couldn't quite finish the sentence, because a dreadful thought occurred to me. Eugene and Rapunzel may well have been all right, but Pascal … Pascal was a chameleon, a lizard, a reptile, and reptiles are cold-blooded. They _need_ a certain amount of heat in order to survive, and I sincerely doubted Pascal would be getting that heat in those weather conditions. If we didn't end this soon, then …"

I gulped. "… fine," I finished. I smiled as reassuringly as I could at him. "They'll be fine."

He nodded at me, either in gratitude or in an attempt to reassure himself.

"It's completely frozen …" said Kristoff.

 **Roll credits,** I thought I heard somebody say.

"But it'll be fine," said Anna. "Elsa will thaw it."

"Will she?" asked Kristoff, doubtfully.

"Yes, she damn well will," I said, glaring at him. Something about the implications of what he said _really_ annoyed me. "She didn't do this on purpose. She's not like that."

"It's okay, Simon, just calm down," Anna soothed me. She turned to Kristoff and pointed her hand in the rough direction of north. "This way to the North Mountain?"

Kristoff chuckled. "More like _this_ way." He grasped Anna's arm and lifted it until she was pointing upwards. I followed the direction with my eyes, and the North Mountain was truly enormous. I didn't blame Anna for gasping in her surprise; I thought I was going to do that, too. The peak of the mountain seemed to rise above even the clouds, though that may have simply been the mist created by the cold weather.

Walking in the direction of the mountain took us through yet another patch of trees, but this particular patch was rather a lot different than the others we had been through on our journey. There were icicles hanging off the trees, hanging so far that some of them actually touched the ground. They were like a series of small, translucent pillars holding up the trees all around us. Some of them didn't even end in points, but in drops that looked rather a lot like rainfall. The sight of it stole my breath away. The light shining through the icicles and hitting the snow beneath our feet was a truly beautiful spectacle.

Kristoff pushed a hand through the drop-like ones as we walked, and they clanked together, making a sound eerily reminiscent of wind chimes. Sven walked through a bunch of them, clearly having a blast. Maximus eyed one of the icicles suspiciously, then gave it a lick. He seemed satisfied enough. I simply settled with admiring the spectacle as I walked.

"I never knew winter could be so … _beautiful_ ," said Anna.

"Yeah, it really _is_ beautiful, isn't it? But it's so _white_."

The slower pace at which we now walked told me that we all shared the same feelings of caution and curiosity.

"You know, how about a little colour? I'm thinking, like, maybe some crimson, chartreuse …"

We pushed our way through some of the drop-like icicles. The voice sounded like it was awfully close now.

"… or how about yellow? No, _not_ yellow. Yellow and snow? Brrr … no go."

It occurred to me from the volume and closeness of his voice that he was now right next to us, so I looked to the side. There, between Anna and Kristoff, stood … a snowman. It was short, about waist-height on me, and he had three black buttons running up his body, two sticks for arms, and what I could only assume were sticks for hair. His eyes looked like human eyes, which unsettled the _hell_ out of me. He also had two buck teeth at the top-centre of his mouth.

"Am I right?" he asked.

Anna, with the most undignified scream I had ever heard, then proceeded to kick his head off.

The head landed in Kristoff's hands, looked at him, and said, "Hi!"

"You're creepy," Kristoff said, then threw the head into my arms.

"Who are you guys?" the head asked.

I threw it back to Anna with a cry of: "Kill it! Kill it with _fire_!"

"I don't want it!" Anna exclaimed, throwing it back to Kristoff.

"Back to you!" said Kristoff, throwing it back to me.

"I don't want this freaky little decapitated snow-thing anywhere near me!" I said. I threw it back to Anna.

"Okay, we got off to a bad start," said the snowman's head. His body was making its way toward Anna aimlessly.

"Ew, ew, the body!" Anna said, then she threw the head at the body.

The head knocked the body to the ground. When it got back up, the head was in place again … but upside down. If anything, I found it even more unsettling.

"Wait, what am I looking at right now?" asked the snowman. "Why are you hanging off the earth like a bat?"

Hearing him say that actually cracked me up a little. The initial shock at discovering a living thing that was made out of snow wore off somewhat, and I relaxed myself as best as I could manage. He didn't seem like he meant any harm at the moment, and even if he did, he was too small to do any real damage.

I don't know if Anna had the same thought process or something, but she quickly moved to help. "All right, wait one second," she said. She walked over to him, grabbed his head, and flipped it around so that it was the right way up again.

"Oh," said the snowman, smiling. "Thank you." He looked over his body, spreading his arms out.

"You're welcome," said Anna.

"Now I'm perfect!"

The smile that had been on Anna's face faded, being replaced by a thoughtful look. "Well, almost …" She reached into the bag Kristoff had been keeping Sven's carrots in.

"It's like my whole life I've been turned upside down," said the snowman.

 _Doesn't have the best memory, does he?_ I thought, smiling a little. He seemed to be a funny little snowman.

That thought went away when Anna shoved a carrot where his nose should be, and ended up shoving it _all the way through his head_.

I winced sympathetically, gritting my teeth. _That looks like it'll hurt …_

"Woo! Head rush!" the snowman exclaimed.

"Oh! Too hard," Anna said frantically. "I'm sorry! I … I … I was just … Are you okay?"

The snowman crossed his eyes and looked at the tip of the carrot where it had gone through. "Are you kidding me?" he asked. "I … am wonderful! I've always wanted a nose." He put his wooden hands against it, almost like he was petting it. "It's so cute. It's like a little baby unicorn."

Anna placed her hand on the rest of the carrot, which was protruding from the back of his head, and pushed it forward so that it more resembled the classic long nose of a snowman.

"Oh, hey, whoa!" the snowman said before he got a look at the new size. "Oh, I love it even more." He looked around at us. "All right, let's start this over. Hi, everyone, I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs." He held his arms out toward Anna as if to hug her.

"Olaf …?" said Anna. Olaf nodded. "That's right …" she smiled, "… Olaf."

"And you are …?" asked Olaf.

"Oh, um, I'm Anna."

"And who's the funky-looking donkey over there?"

"That's Sven," Anna said, at the same time as I said, "Kristoff," whist sniggering to myself.

"Wait, which is it?"

"It's Sven." Anna gave me a pointed look, though she did look slightly amused.

"Uh huh. And who's the reindeer?"

I immediately lost my shit. The laughter burst from my lips like an erupting hurricane, and I had to hold my stomach in order to keep from just falling over. Maximus was laughing, too, banging one of his hooves on the floor. Kristoff looked confused and a little offended.

"… Sven," Anna answered after some hesitation.

"Oh, they're … oh, okay," said Olaf. "Makes things easier for me." Sven tried and failed to take a bite out of his nose. "Ah, look at him trying to catch my nose. I like you, too." He looked at me and Maximus. "And who are these two?"

"Hi, Olaf, I'm Simon," I said, "and I humbly apologise for suggesting that we should kill you with fire. You're a nice guy. The horse is Maximus."

"Olaf," said Anna, grabbing his attention. "Did Elsa build you?"

"Yeah, why?" asked Olaf.

Kristoff plucked off one of his arms, muttering "Fascinating" to himself.

"Do you know where she is?" asked Anna.

"Yeah, why?"

Kristoff bent the arm at the elbow. "How does this work?"

"You know where she is?" I asked quickly. "Can you take us to her?"

"Yeah, why?"

The arm in Kristoff's hand suddenly slapped him. "Ow!"

Olaf snatched his arm off and reattached it. "Stop it, Sven! I'm trying to focus here." He looked back at me. "Yeah, why?"

"I'll tell you why," said Kristoff. "We need Elsa to bring back summer."

"Summer?" asked Olaf. "Oh, I don't know why, but I've always _loved_ the idea of summer. And _sun_. And all things _hot_."

"Really? I'm guessing you don't have much experience with heat?"

"Nope. But sometimes I like to close my eyes," he did so, "and imagine what it'd be like when summer does come."

What he did next, while singing, was probably dancing of some form, but since he appeared to be imagining his location and items around him, I don't think I can adequately describe the movements exactly.

 _Bees'll buzz,  
_ _Kids'll blow dandelion fuzz,  
_ _And I'll be doing whatever snow does  
_ _In summer._

 _A drink in my hand,  
_ _My snow up against the burning sand,  
_ _Probably getting gorgeously tanned  
_ _In summer._

 _I'll finally see a summer breeze  
_ _Blow away a winter storm,  
_ _And find out what happens to solid water  
_ _When it gets warm._

 _And I can't wait to see  
_ _What my buddies all think of me.  
_ _Imagine how much cooler I'll be  
_ _In summer._

 _Da da, da doo,  
_ _Ah bah bah bah bah bah boo._

 _The hot and the cold are both so intense,  
_ _Put 'em together, it just makes sense._

 _Ratdadat dad dada doo._

 _Winter's a good time to stay in and cuddle,  
_ _But put me in summer and I'll be a  
_ _Happy snowman._

 _When life gets rough I like to hold on to my dream  
_ _Of relaxing in the summer sun just letting off steam._

 _Oh the sky will be blue  
_ _And you guys'll be there, too.  
_ _When I finally do what frozen things do in summer._

"I'm gonna tell him," Kristoff said, smirking.

"Don't you dare," Anna warned him.

"It'd probably be kinder," I said. "Do you really wanna see this dream kill him?"

 _In summer!_

"So come on!" Olaf said enthusiastically, gesturing with his arms. "Elsa's this way. Let's go bring back summer!"

The thought of getting closer to wherever Elsa was was enough to make me forget about my previous thoughts of telling Olaf that the summer was likely to kill him. I would tell him later, I resolved, but I wouldn't dishearten him on the way there. I'm not sure whether I was holding off on telling him for the sake of speed, or if I just didn't want to see that smile wiped off his face – it could have been a bit of both, now that I think about it. But one thing was for sure: we were heading toward Elsa.

That thought alone put a smile on my face.

Then another thought occurred to me.

"So, Olaf, do you know _how_ Elsa created you?" I asked.

"No idea," he said, never dropping that cheerful demeanour. "All I know is that she did. How do you guys know Elsa, anyway? Are you her friends?"

"I'm her sister," said Anna. "And honestly, the whole no summer thing is kinda my fault. I want to put it all right."

"I'm her friend," I said. "I care about her, and I don't want her to be gone forever. Honestly, I wouldn't entirely mind eternal winter. Arendelle is winter for most of the year, anyway. This one's just a lot colder."

"Ah, okay. So you love her, then?"

"Yes I do." I'd said the words before thinking about it, but surprisingly I didn't get embarrassed. "Huh … you know, it's the first time I've said that out loud, and I'm not as flustered as I thought I'd be. Strange."

"It's only embarrassing so long as you try to hide it, Simon," said Kristoff.

"Whoa, whoa, wait up a minute!" Anna said suddenly. She had her eyes on me. "You _are_ in love with Elsa?" I nodded. Anna looked like she was struggling to speak. She looked excited, surprised, and curious all at the same time. "That's … wow … just _wow_ … So, for how long?"

"At least since we were kids," I said. "I only figured out exactly how I felt on the day of the coronation. It had to have been there for years. I guess I just didn't know before because I was a kid, and kids don't really process feelings properly. I knew I liked her in a different way to how I liked you, but that's about it."

Anna whistled. "If you've been in love with her that long, I guess all those years she kept herself locked away must have been just as hard on you as they were on me."

"… Yeah, I guess." I turned my attention to Olaf. "Say, Olaf, you're – what? – a day and half old, at _most_. How in the hell did _you_ figure out that I love Elsa?"

"It was the way you talked about her," he said. He sighed. "Love is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Almost as beautiful as I imagine summer to look! No hurry up, guys! I wanna see summer!" He started moving a lot quicker.

I didn't mind. I wanted to see Elsa as soon as I could.

* * *

 **And that's chapter three!**

 **I thought of Simon's initial reaction to Olaf as I was writing out the chapter. Before, I was just going to have him freak out a little, then calm down, kinda like Anna and Kristoff do. Then the phrase "Kill it with fire!" came to mind, and I just _had_ to use it.**

 **Simon's feelings for Elsa are out in the open to everyone but the woman herself. What did I say about fast progression, Constant Readers? I feel like I need it to allow for everything to happen within the events of the story itself, so try not to judge too harshly. If it helps, just think about how _Frozen_ is a Disney movie, the homeland of fast-developing emotions! Am I in the clear yet?**

 **See you next chapter!**


	4. I Love You, Elsa

I Love You, Elsa

To say the place we had to pass through next was "hostile terrain" would be putting it rather mildly, I'm afraid. There were icy pillars with windswept icicles sticking off them, facing toward us as we walked through. One wrong move and I could have cut or – even worse – impaled myself on one of the protrusions. There was still a certain beauty to the contrast of all that white against the dark grey of the mountain rock.

"So how exactly _are_ you two planning to stop this weather?" Kristoff asked, suddenly.

"Oh, we are gonna talk to my sister," said Anna, clearly trying to make it sound more impressive than it actually was.

"That's your plan?" asked Kristoff, incredulous. "My ice business is resting on the two of you talking to the Queen?"

"That's exactly right, Kristoff, my friend," I said, patting him on the shoulder. "Good to know those ears of yours work properly."

Was the sarcasm needed? Probably not, but I thought it was a nice touch.

Kristoff let out a gasp of shock. I turned to see what had happened and saw that there was an icicle pressed uncomfortably closely against his nose. I briefly flashed back to when something similar had happened to me only two or so days before, only then the icicle had been pressed against my throat.

 _I bet I looked as panicked as I felt,_ I thought suddenly. _Just … just like everyone else …_ Now I felt guilty; guilty at the possibility that a look of fear on my face may have contributed to Elsa's decision to run away. _She needs to know I'm not afraid of her._ My determination to reach Elsa and speak to her increased ten-fold. I started walking quicker.

"So you're not at all afraid of her?" asked Kristoff.

"Why would I be?" asked Anna.

"Yeah," said Olaf. "I bet she's the nicest," he started walking backwards, "gentlest," his back hit an icicle, but he continue to walk, and the icicle slid through his body, "warmest person ever." He looked down and saw that he had an icicle passing through him. "Oh, look at that." He tapped the icicle. "I've been impaled." He laughed.

"As ironic as that statement actually is," I said, "Olaf is completely right. If Elsa is anything like she was when we were kids, then there's no reason for us to be scared of her."

I took one of the three remaining apples from my bag and gave it to Maximus, who ate it greedily. We continued to trek through the rather hazardous display of icicles for a few more minutes, then we made it back into the clear air again. If only that had made things easier. What we found when we emerged was a sheer cliff-face that seemed to lead right to the top of the mountain, but it was far too steep for Maximus or Sven to get up there, and it looked to steep to even climb safely.

 _Can't things be easy, just_ once _?_ I asked in my mind, sighing. I wouldn't let this obstacle stop me, but if I hadn't known any better, I'd have said it was a scene from one of those bad adventure stories Mum used to tell me as a child.

"What now?" asked Anna.

Kristoff hummed. "It's too steep," he said. He reached into his satchel. "I've only got one rope, and you two don't know how to climb mountains."

"Says who?" asked Anna, who was starting an attempt to climb up the rock.

"Says the fact that neither of us have ever climbed a mountain before," I said.

"Come on, Simon! You said you love Elsa, right? Shouldn't you be just as determined as me to get up there to see her?"

"I am, Anna. Believe me, I am. But I'm not stupid enough to think that the power of love alone is going to help me climb up a mountain, when I have _no idea_ how to climb a damn mountain!"

"He's right, Anna," said Kristoff. "You're gonna kill yourself." Anna ignored us and continued to climb. "I wouldn't put my foot there."

Her foot slipped. "You're distracting me!" she said, bringing her foot up again.

"Or there," said Kristoff. Anna's foot slipped again. "How do you know Elsa even wants to see you?"

"All right, I'm just blocking you out, because I've gotta concentrate here."

Kristoff sighed. "You know, most people who disappear into the mountains want to be alone," he said.

 _He's got a point,_ I admitted unhappily in my mind. _Still not gonna stop me, though._

"No one wants to be alone," said Anna. "Except maybe you."

"I'm not alone," said Kristoff. "I have friends, remember?"

"You mean the 'love experts'?"

"Yes," Kristoff crossed his arms, "the love experts."

"You should probably stop doubting him on that, Anna," I said. "He read my emotions like a book. I think that's more than enough proof that he's being honest about that."

Anna stopped climbing and struggled for breath. "Please tell me I'm almost there," she said.

"Not even close," I said, grinning slightly. In truth, Anna had only gotten about six feet off the ground, which was why I hadn't been particularly worried about her. What? Do you think I'd have stood there chatting if she'd gotten high enough to have a fatal accident? "Get down, Anna. We need to think about this more carefully."

"Hey, guys!" called Olaf. He was standing around a corner, poking his head out so he could look at us. "I don't know if this solves the problem, but I found a staircase that leads exactly where you want it to go!"

Anna laughed. "Thank goodness!" she said, then looked down at Kristoff. "Catch!" She let go of the rock and dropped, landing in Kristoff's arms. "Thanks." She got to her feet again. "That was like a crazy trust exercise."

"This situation couldn't get any weirder, could it?" I asked Maximus. He shook his head. "Well, at least Elsa left us a staircase. That was nice of her."

We rounded the corner Olaf had gone around, and my mouth dropped open from what I saw. The staircase Olaf had mentioned was completely made of ice and had an elegant design to it. It was where that staircase lead, however, that had me struggling to form words. It was a gigantic castle completely made of ice. It reached the top of the mountain, and possibly even a little further. There was a large, circular balcony near the top.

Olaf walked up the stairs, laughing to himself.

"Whoa," said Anna.

"Now _that's_ ice," said Kristoff in amazement. "I might cry …"

"I wouldn't blame you," I said. "It's _beautiful_ …"

We started to make our way up the staircase, but Sven and Maximus appeared to be having some trouble. Their hooves kept slipping and sliding on the ice, and they both slid down to the bottom of the stairs almost instantly.

"Maybe you two should keep each other company down here," I suggested. "You can wait for us to come back."

Sven seemed happy enough to do so, but Maximus started giving me the stink-eye. He blew out air through his nose in what I thought was some form of protest.

"Sorry, Maximus, but unless you want to take a few hours getting up these stairs, you're going to have to stay here," I said. "Hopefully we won't be long."

His expression didn't really change; at least it hadn't before I turned around, but I couldn't see him after that, now could I? Anna, Kristoff, and I followed Olaf up the stairs, which curved a fair amount as they went to their destination. Somewhere along the line, Anna managed to overtake Olaf, and when we reached the castle at the top of the stairs, she raised a hand to knock on the door, but hesitated.

"Knock," said Olaf. "Just knock." Anna made no move. "Why isn't she knocking?"

I thought I knew why. I also thought I shared the same fears as her. After so many years of knocking on Elsa's door without getting a real reply, there was a part of my mind that was terrified that the door wouldn't open if Anna knocked it. The thought that Elsa might keep me shut out of her life forever made me feel massively empty inside. I think Anna felt the same way.

"Do you think she knows how to knock?" asked Olaf.

Then Anna knocked.

The door slid open. My spirits lifted exponentially.

"It opened!" Anna said. "That's a first."

"And a damn _good_ first, at that," I said, smiling. All I could think about was going inside. "So, we going in?"

"Yeah," said Anna. Her eyes widened slightly and she turned to Kristoff. "Oh, you should probably wait out here."

"What?" asked Kristoff.

"Last time I introduced her to a guy, she froze everything," said Anna.

"That is a very valid point," I admitted.

"But …" Kristoff said in protest. "Oh, come on! It's a palace made of _ice_! Ice is my life!"

"Bye, Sven," said Olaf, starting to walk inside.

"You, too, Olaf," said Anna, dragging him back by the arm.

"Me?" Olaf said in confusion.

"Don't want to overwhelm her, buddy," I said, patting him on the head. "You can come in in a little while."

"Yeah, just … just give us a minute, okay?" said Anna.

"Okay," said Olaf. Then, whispering, " _One … two … three …_ "

Anna and I went inside.

The door slid shut behind us as we went in, but I hardly noticed. I was too busy being enraptured by the sheer beauty of the inside of the castle. The room we were in was incredibly large, and there were two staircases going along the outside of it, both ending at the same place. There was a fountain at the centre, frozen in place, looking surprisingly majestic. The light shining in from outside made the place look bright blue, and it was truly a gorgeous sight to behold.

"Elsa!" Anna called out. "It's me, Anna! And Simon's with me!" She slipped a little on the floor, and I moved to stead her. "Thanks."

"Anna … Simon …" came Elsa's voice. She was standing at the top of the stairs.

"My God, Elsa, you look _beautiful_ …" I said without thinking about it.

She was beautiful. She had let her hair down, and it was now hanging over her left shoulder in a long braid. Her dress, previously dark, was now the same bright blue colour that the castle appeared to be. There was a slit up the right side of the skirt portion. She had a long, bright blue cape attached to the back. The way the dress hugged at her body excited me somewhat, but I forced myself to calm down. It wasn't the time for those sorts of thoughts.

Elsa was far away, right at the top of the large staircase, but I could have sworn I saw her face go a little red. "Thank you," she said.

"This place …" said Anna, "… it's _amazing_ …"

"Thank you," said Elsa, smiling. "I never knew what I was capable of."

"I'm so sorry about what happened," Anna said, beginning to climb the stairs. "If I'd have known …"

"No, no, no, it's okay," said Elsa, backing away slightly. "Y-You don't have to apologise. But you two should probably go … please."

"Not without you," I said. "Elsa, I— _we_ need you."

"No you don't," she said, shaking her head. "You two belong down in Arendelle."

"So do you," said Anna.

"No, Anna, I belong here, alone," said Elsa. "Where I can be who I am … without hurting anybody …"

"But you _didn't_ hurt anybody," I said. "Nobody actually got hurt. It all just came as a bit of a shock to them."

"Well, actually, that's not entirely—" Anna was swiftly cut off.

"— _ifty nine … sixty_!"

"Wait … what is that?" asked Elsa.

"Hi, I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs!" Olaf exclaimed as he came into the room.

"… Olaf?"

"You built me," said Olaf, coming to stand beside Anna and I. "Remember that?"

"And you're alive?"

"Ye— Um, I _think_ so …"

"He's just like the one we built as kids," Anna said, leaning down to Olaf's level.

"Yeah …" said Elsa.

 _I guess I wasn't around for that one,_ I thought, mentally shrugging.

"Elsa, we were so close – all three of us," said Anna. "We can be like that again."

Elsa stood silently for awhile. "No … we can't …" She crossed her arms to hug herself and started to walk away. "Goodbye, Anna, Simon."

"Don't leave," I said. Even I could hear the begging tone in my voice.

"Elsa, wait," said Anna. The two of us moved up the stairs.

"No, I'm just trying to protect you!" said Elsa.

"You don't have to protect us," said Anna. "We're not afraid!" Then she started singing.

 _Please don't shut us out again.  
_ _Please don't slam the door.  
_ _You don't have to keep your distance any more._

We reached the top of the stairs and walked through the door, which lead to another set of stairs. Elsa was walking up them, and we followed. Anna continued to sing.

' _Cause for the first time in forever,  
_ _I finally understand.  
_ _For the first time in forever,  
_ _We can fix this hand in hand._

 _We can head down this mountain together,  
_ _You don't have to live in fear,  
_ ' _Cause for the first time in forever,  
_ _We will be right here._

We had reached the top of the stairs and were now in a smaller, circular room. The door to the balcony was off to the side. Elsa turned around to face us, and she, too, started singing.

 _You two,  
_ _Please go back home.  
_ _Your lives await.  
_ _Go enjoy the sun and open up the gates._

"Come on, Elsa—" I tried to say, but she cut me off with more singing.

 _I know you mean well,  
_ _But leave me be.  
_ _Yes I'm alone,  
_ _But I'm alone and free._

She stepped onto the balcony, smiling. Then went back inside.

 _Just stay away and you'll be safe from me._

Then Anna sang again.

 _Actually we're not._

Elsa.

 _What do you mean you're not?_

Anna.

 _I get the feeling you don't know._

Elsa.

 _What do I not know?_

Then I sang in response.

 _Arendelle is buried in deep snow._

"What?" Elsa asked, shocked. "You said nobody got hurt."

"Not _hurt_ , but I'd imagine they're rather cold by now …" I said, looking at my feet and rubbing the back of my neck.

"Yeah, you kind of set off an eternal winter … everywhere," said Anna.

"Everywhere?" Elsa asked in distress.

"It's okay," said Anna. "You can just unfreeze it."

"No I can't! I don't know how!"

"Yes you can, Elsa," I said. "I have faith in you. I _believe_ in you." Then I sang again.

' _Cause for the first time in forever,_

Then Elsa sang.

 _Oh, I'm such a fool,  
_ _I can't be free._

Me.

 _You don't have to be afraid._

Elsa.

 _No escape from the storm inside of me._

It was suddenly like there was a snowstorm inside the room. Wind blew and snow flew everywhere like a blizzard. I didn't let this perturb me, however.

Anna sang next.

 _We can work this out together._

Elsa.

 _I can't control the curse._

Anna.

 _We'll reverse the storm you've made._

Elsa.

 _You two, please, you'll only make it worse._

Me.

 _Don't worry._

Elsa.

 _There's so much fear._

Anna.

 _We'll make the sun shine bright._

Elsa.

 _You aren't safe here._

Anna.

 _We can face this thing together.  
_ _We can change this thing together.  
_ _And everything will be all right._

And then, finally, with a very loud cry, Elsa.

 _I can't!_

All the snow that had been flying around the room seemed to be drawn to her, and as she yelled it all burst forth from her, spreading all throughout the room.

I didn't see if hit me, nor did I see it hit Anna, but I certainly _felt_ it. The inside of my chest suddenly felt incredibly cold, _frozen_ even. I hugged myself in an attempt to warm up, but it did no good. The source of the coldness was _inside_ me. For the first second or so, it even _hurt_. I found myself unable to stand straight for a moment, and I doubled over, but managed to stand myself back up relatively quickly. Though the feeling of cold was still there, and it wasn't going away any time soon.

" _Ooh, that's cold_ …" I muttered to myself, still clutching at my chest. I looked up and made eye-contact with Elsa. She was afraid, her eyes told me. That made me unhappy. "Elsa …" I started to say.

"Anna!" Kristoff yelled, suddenly bursting into the room. "Simon!" He ran toward Anna, who had fallen to her knees, and moved to help her up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," said Anna, breathing heavily, as she stood up with Kristoff's help. "I'm fine."

"Who's this?" Elsa asked in confusion. Then she shook her head. "It doesn't matter. Just … you _have_ to go."

"No, Elsa," I said. "Just come with us. It'll be fine."

"I know we can figure this out, together!" said Anna.

"How?" asked Elsa. "What power do you have to stop this winter? To stop _me_?"

"Guys, I think we should go," said Kristoff. The icy walls of the castle were starting to slowly stick out in icicles.

"No!" said Anna. She tried to move forward, but was being held back by Kristoff. "We're not leaving without you, Elsa!"

"Yes, you are," said Elsa. She shot some ice into the floor, and it immediately started to grow into something made of snow. Whatever it was, it was big. I didn't want to leave Elsa here, but if the size of this thing was any indication, I wasn't going to get a choice in the matter.

"Come on, Elsa, don't do this!" I yelled as it grew into the shape of a massive snow creature. In one last ditch attempt, fuelled purely by the emotion of the moment, I spilled my guts. "Elsa, for God's sake, I _love_ you!"

I caught one brief glimpse of her eyes growing wide before the snow monster picked us all up and started to carry us out. I could feel the snow monster's movements, but I could see nothing but the white of his hands. And Olaf, because he was in the monster's hand with me. When next I saw anything but white, it was the outside of Elsa's castle.

"Go away," the monster said in a deep voice, then threw us down the steps.

It didn't hurt at all, strangely enough. Anna, Kristoff, and I simply slid down, making incomprehensible noises as we slid. Olaf wasn't with us, which was odd, but that was hardly what I was focusing on at the time. When we stopped sliding, we ended up lying in the snow. The coldness of it smothered me, but it was nothing compared to the feelings of cold that were inside me.

"Heads up!" came Olaf's voice. Then his head suddenly hit the rock next to us as it was thrown by the monster. "Watch out for my butt!" Then his middle and lower sections were thrown into the rock, too.

Anna started gathering up a snowball. "It is not nice to throw people!" she said, preparing to throw it.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, feisty pants," said Kristoff, grabbing her arm. She struggled, and he wrapped his arms around her to keep her steady. "Okay, relax, just calm down. Calm down!"

"Okay, all right, I'm okay," Anna said.

"Just let the snowman be," said Kristoff as he released her from his grip.

"I'm calm," said Anna.

"Great," said Kristoff.

Then Anna threw the snowball at the snow monster. It hit, but it didn't do anything but make the monster look at us.

I looked at Kristoff in a deadpan stare. "You were saying?" I asked.

He just sighed.

The snow monster roared at us. He grew sharp-looking claws out of his fingers.

"Well shit …" I said.

"See?" said Kristoff, gesturing at the snow monster. "Now you made him mad!"

"I'll distract him, you guys go," said Olaf.

Considering the fact that he could separate his body parts from each other at will, I didn't think this thing would be able to kill him. Anna and Kristoff apparently had the same thought process, because we all took off running with no indication whatsoever that we felt guilty about doing so. It was slightly difficult to run with the cold feelings deep in my chest, but I managed fine, and so did Anna. The three of us, with no apparent regard for our own safety so long as we were keeping away from the snow monster, jumped down an incredibly steep slope that was covered in snow. Sliding down it rapidly, I could feel the wind passing through my hair, biting my scalp like thousands of sharp, icy teeth.

For a split second after reaching the bottom, I thought we were safe. Then the snow monster jumped down and landed directly behind us. That's when we started running for our lives again.

 _The good news is that it seems to have completely ignored Sven, Maximus, and Olaf,_ I found myself thinking as I ran.

We took to running through a more wooded area, myself hoping that he wouldn't follow us through the small gaps between the trees. I was very wrong. I didn't need to look back to know that it was smacking the trees aside like they were absolutely nothing at all. I only stopped running when Anna stopped running, and even then it was only to see what the hell was wrong with her.

"What are you doing!?" Kristoff asked frantically.

Anna didn't answer. Instead she reached down and plucked something out of the ground. The strangely shaped, snow-covered arch she had been standing next to suddenly sprung from the ground, revealing itself to be a tree, and in springing up it hit the snow monster directly in the face. The snow monster staggered back and hit the ground with a _thud_. White powder puffed up from where it had landed.

Kristoff and I both cheered. I had a large grin on my face, though my teeth were chattering together.

"I got him!" Anna cheered.

Then we were forced to stop again. While the other drop had been just enough of a slope for us to slide down it with relative safety, this one gave us no such luxury. It was so far that I couldn't tell if I was looking at the snow at the bottom or if there was mist separating us from the ground below.

"It's a hundred foot drop!" said Anna.

"More like two hundred," said Kristoff.

"Whatever way you look at it, Kristoff, it's a damn long fall," I said. "No need to make it even _more_ terrifying."

Kristoff, not responding, took the rope out of his satchel and tied it roughly around Anna's waist.

"Ow!" said Anna due to how tight the rope was tied. Kristoff started digging into the snow with his pickaxe. "What's that for?"

"Digging a snow anchor," said Kristoff.

"Okay, what if we fall?" asked Anna.

Kristoff started burying one end of the rope in the small trench he had made in the snow. "There's twenty feet of fresh power down there," he said. "It'll be like landing on a pillow … hopefully." He then tied some of the rope around my waist (Anna was right – it was painfully tight), and then his own.

The roaring of the snow monster and the blatant moving of the trees indicated that we didn't have much time left.

Kristoff threw what was left of the rope off the cliff and down into the snow. "Okay, guys, on three," he said.

 _So we just jump off and hope for the best?_ I thought. _Not the most solid planning ever, but what the hell? Our luck's been pretty good so far … for the most part._ I thought about Elsa for a moment, but did my best to push the thoughts away. There was no need to cause myself any more emotional pain than I'd already been through.

"Okay," said Anna.

"One," said Kristoff.

"Tell me when. I'm ready to go."

"Two."

"I was _born_ ready. Yes!"

"Calm down."

Something large was flung into the air from behind the treeline. Only when it hit the floor and slid to directly in front of us did I recognise it as a tree, which made me rather nervous. Pushing them away was one thing, but this thing was _throwing trees around_ now!?

" _Tree_!" Anna yelled, then jumped off the ledge.

The sudden fall was hardly noticeable, strangely enough. The sudden _stop_ , however, was _very_ noticeable. The rope caught the three of us in mid-air, and stopped me with such a violent jolt that I was actually winded for a moment or two. _Well, at least we know Kristoff's snow anchor works._

"That happened," said Kristoff.

"You _think_!?" I said, glaring at him.

" _Anna_!" the sound of Olaf's voice resounded suddenly. " _Sven_! _Simon_! Where'd you guys go? We totally lost the marshmallow back there." I couldn't see Olaf, but I _could_ see the head of the snow monster appear just above the edge of the cliff. "Hey! We were just talking about you. All good things, all good things."

The snow monster started to walk toward us.

" _No_!" said Olaf. The monster continued to walk. "This is not making much of a difference, is it?" He screamed, and then I saw him falling past us.

"Olaf!" called Anna.

Olaf hit a protruding piece of stone on the way down and split into three pieces. "Hang in there, guys!" he yelled up before he hit the snow at the bottom.

Kristoff began pumping at the rope in order to lower us down.

"Go faster," said Anna … then we stopped completely.

"I believe I used these exact words a few minutes ago," I said, "but I'll use them again: Well _shit_."

The snow monster had hold of the rope at the top, and was pulling us back to the top of the cliff we had fallen from. I struggled, as did Anna and Kristoff, but it didn't do any good, and before I knew it, we were face to face with our own personal abominable snowman once again.

It glared at us. " _Don't come back_!" it yelled, its eyes lighting up sinisterly.

"We won't," said Anna. She then took the pickaxe from Kristoff's belt and used it to cut the rope, sending us into a fall. All three of us yelled on the way down.

I was surprised by how soft the landing was. For a moment, while falling, I had been trying to accept the likelihood of my own death, but apparently fate had other plans for me. Kristoff's description of the snow acting as a sort of pillow had been entirely accurate. I barely felt the impact of landing at all.

"Hey, you were right," said Anna, patting the snow. "Just like a pillow."

"Surprisingly comfortable despite the cold," I agreed.

"Olaf," said Anna when she saw the snowman.

He appeared to be hyperventilating … I didn't think it was _possible_ for a snowman to hyperventilate, but I had never met a living snowman before, so what did I know? He was using his hands to touch a pair of feet in front of him. "I can't feel my legs," he said, panicked. " _I can't feel my legs_!"

Kristoff emerged from beneath the snow behind him. "Those are _my_ legs," he said.

Olaf's legs made their presence known by walking past. "Hey, do me a favour, grab my butt," Olaf said to Kristoff, who lifted Olaf's top half out of the ground and placed it back on his bottom half. "Oh, that feels better."

Sven tried to bite his nose again.

"Hey, Sven!" said Olaf. "He found us!" He grabbed Sven's head and rubbed his cheek against Sven's. "Who's my cute little reindeer?"

"Don't talk to him like that," said Kristoff.

I saw that Maximus had walked over with Sven, too. So I went over to greet him. "Hey, Maximus," I said, patting him on the muzzle. "Things got a little hectic there, huh?"

He gave me a look as if to say: "Isn't that a bit of an understatement?"

"Yeah, I guess it is," I said. I reached into my bag and gave him an apple. "There's only one left now, so I think we'll save that for when there's something to celebrate." He looked like an eager child at the thought of another apple, and that made me smile.

Kristoff helped Anna up from where she was half buried in the snow. "You okay?" he asked.

"Thank you," said Anna.

The two of them just stared at each other for a few moments. It was long enough that I started to think Anna may have gotten engaged to Hans too soon. (For different reasons than why I thought that to begin with.)

"How's your head?" Anna asked, putting a hand to his head.

Kristoff recoiled in obvious pain, though it didn't look too severe. "It's fine," he said. "It's good. I've got a thick skull."

"I don't have a skull," Olaf oh so helpfully told us. (Note the sarcasm.) "Or bones."

"So, uh, so now what?" asked Kristoff.

"Now what?" Anna asked, brushing some of her hair behind her ear. Then realisation came to her face. "Now what?" She rubbed her hands up and down the sides of her face. "Oh, what are we gonna do? She threw us out! I can't go back to Arendelle with the weather like this. And then there's your ice business, and—"

"Hey, don't worry about my ice business," said Kristoff. His eyes narrowed suddenly. "Worry about your hair."

"What? I just fell off a cliff, you should see your hair."

"No, yours is turning _white_."

"White? It's … what?" She looked at the braid on the right side and saw that there was a rather large patch of white in it.

"It's because she struck you, isn't it?"

I felt air being blown against the right side of my head, so I turned to see what it was and saw Maximus was sniffing at my head. "What is it, Maximus?" I asked, but I thought I already knew the answer. _Elsa struck me, too …_

"Simon …" said Anna, looking at me worriedly, "… there's white in your hair …"

I sighed out a shaky breath. Now it was more than the cold making my body quiver. "Yeah, I kinda figured that …" I said. I did my best to steel myself. "So … what do we do now?"

" _Now_ , you two need help," said Kristoff. "Come on."

"Okay!" said Olaf. "Where are we going?"

"To see my friends," said Kristoff.

"The love experts?" asked Anna.

"Love experts?" Olaf asked excitedly.

"Uh huh," said Kristoff.

"Good," I said. "I can bitch at them for teaching you how to read feeling so damn well." Despite the cold feeling in my chest and the slight fear I felt at this new change on my body, I did my best to keep my sense of humour up. As I've said, joking around is really the only way I know how to deal with stress.

"How do you know they'll be able to help?" Anna asked.

"Because I've seen them do it before," said Kristoff.

"Sounds like an oddly specific thing to see twice in one lifetime," I said.

I didn't get a response. The mood seemed too grim for a conversational atmosphere.

* * *

 **That's chapter four out of the way, Constant Readers! Wow, I've never written this many chapters in one week before! (Seriously, I got the idea for this a little too late into the season to be able to do anything but rush it.)**

 **So, Simon has told Elsa that he loves her, _and_ he's had his heart frozen along with Anna! What could this mean for the story? You'll have to keep reading to find out for sure, but I think if you have a brain that works properly, you probably know where I'm going with this. For those of you who don't, well … just wait to find out, I guess.**

 **See you next chapter!**


	5. Just When I Thought This Was Weird Enoug

Just When I Thought This was Weird Enough …

"Look, Sven, the sky's awake," said Olaf as he rid on Sven's back.

The sky was very much awake that night. Whereas the night is normally dark to the point of blackness, the lights long lines of shifting light shining through the sky allowed me to see as if it were the daytime. I was still hugging my arms around my chest in an effort to raise my body temperature, but it wasn't doing any good. Whatever had happened, whatever was turning my and Anna's hair white, was on the inside, so there wasn't really anything I could do about it. I couldn't stop myself, though; trying to keep warm was just basic instinct.

"Are you cold?" Kristoff asked Anna, who was hugging herself just as I was.

"A little," said Anna.

For a moment Kristoff looked like he was going to wrap his arms around her to share body heat, but he hesitated. Then it occurred to me. Just like how Kristoff could tell I was in love with Elsa, I could tell for a fact that he was falling in love with Anna. It actually made me feel rather sorry for him, to be honest. If the way Anna had been about Prince Hans those last few days was any indication, she was head over heels for the guy.

"Oh, uh, wait, c'mere," said Kristoff, running off to the side. "You, too, Simon."

The fact that I appeared to be something of an afterthought confirmed my theory about Kristoff's growing feelings for Anna. I went over to where they were and saw that they were standing by holes in the ground that seemed to lead to some kind of natural hot spring. That's what I assumed, anyway – they were just holes in the ground that had steam coming out of them.

I went over to the one Kristoff and Anna were stood near and tried to warm up. It worked a charm on the outside, but that feeling of coldness in my chest was still there. It had gotten worse over time, as a matter of fact.

The steam stopped coming from the hole and started coming out of another one, so we moved over to that.

"So … uh, about my friends," said Kristoff. "Well, uh, I _say_ friends. They're more like family. Anyway, when I was a kid it was just me and Sven until they, you know, kinda took us in." He was definitely talking more to Anna than to me.

"They did?" asked Anna.

"Yeah," said Kristoff. "I don't wanna scare you." _A great start to any sentence._ "They can be a little inappropriate. And … loud, very loud. They're also stubborn at times, and a little overbearing at times. And heavy, really, _really_ heavy, which, y'know … you'll get it, they're fine, well, they mean well."

"Take a pause to breath, Kristoff," I said with a grin. "We don't want to lose you."

"Don't worry about it," Anna said to him. "They sound wonderful."

Kristoff smiled at her. "Okay, then," he said. He walked ahead and turned around to face us, spreading his arms out. "Meet my family."

There was nobody there.

We were surrounded by rocks.

"Hey, guys," Kristoff said, turning around and waving at the rocks.

Anna, Olaf, Maximus, and I stood stock-still, staring. _He's insane …_ I thought. I had seen some strange things over those last few days, but seeing Kristoff break down and start talking to a bunch of rocks? Yeah, that was a new one on me.

"They're … rocks …" said Anna.

" _He's crazy_ ," whispered Olaf.

"Or stoned," I said, laughing a little at my own joke.

The worst part was that even Sven seemed to be involved. He was prancing about the rocks, sniffing at them and nuzzling them as if they were people. It was actually a really unsettling scene to behold.

" _I'll distract him while you run_ ," Olaf whispered. Then he switched to a much higher volume and walked toward the rocks. "Hi, Sven's family!" He tapped one of the rocks as if patting somebody's head. "It's nice to meet you!" He started whispering again. " _Anna, Simon, Max, because I love you guys, I insist you run_." He started loudly talking to the rock again. "I understand you're love experts!" He looked at us more severely this time. " _Why aren't you running_?"

"See you, Kristoff," I said, then started backing away.

"Yeah, we're gonna, uh, go …" said Anna, who also started backing away.

"No, no, no, guys, wait!" Kristoff pleaded.

I was honestly prepared to start fighting off a crazy man, but then an even more bizarre thing happened: the rocks started to _move_. They started tolling toward us, and after a few moments, Kristoff and Sven were surrounded by rocks. These rocks immediately opened up to reveal that they were really little trolls.

 _And I thought this day couldn't get any weirder …_ I thought, sighing.

"Kristoff's home!" one of the trolls, a female, exclaimed in joy. The over trolls soon joined her.

"Kristoff's home!" Even Olaf joined in with the cheering. Then he just looked confused. "Wait … _Kristoff_?

The fact that it had taken him so long to realise Sven wasn't Kristoff's real name made me want to start laughing again, but my confusion at the situation was slightly more powerful than my need to laugh.

"Let me look at you," the female troll said, pulling Kristoff down.

Another female troll came out of the crowd. "Take off your clothes, I'll wash them."

"No, no, no," said Kristoff, pushing her hands away. "I'm gonna keep my clothes on. Look, it's great to see you all, but where's Grand Pabbie?"

"He's napping," said another troll, a much younger one judging from the size. "But look! I grew a mushroom!" He turned around and there was, indeed, a mushroom growing from the back.

"I earned my fire crystal," said a young female, holding up a glowing orange crystal.

"I passed a kidney stone," said an adult male, holding up the stone in question.

 _Ouch,_ I thought. Just looking at that thing made me feel pain in my groin area.

"Kristoff, pick me up!" one of the younger ones said, jumping into Kristoff's arms.

"You're getting big," said Kristoff in a strained voice, clearly struggling to hold the troll in his arms. Another jumped on his back and the strain increased. "Good for you."

"Trolls …" said Anna. "They're trolls!"

"Indeed they are," I said. I was honestly just thankful that Kristoff wasn't actually crazy.

The trolls turned around, looked at us, and blinked twice in sync. _Okay, that was creepy._ "He's brought friends with him," said the female who had greeted Kristoff. "And one of them's a girl!"

" _A girl_!" all of the trolls said at once.

Anna and I were picked up and carried across the small ocean of trolls so quickly that I would've missed it if I'd blinked. Being surrounded by them brought forth a feeling of comfort that one wouldn't expect. They were all smiling, and they seemed friendly enough. I found myself relaxing in their presence.

They ended up throwing Anna into Kristoff's arms. "What's going on?" asked Anna.

"I've learned to just role with it," said Kristoff, putting Anna down.

"My entire experience on this journey in a nutshell," I said.

Three of the trolls stacked up, with the female who had greeted Kristoff being on top. "Lemme see," she said, pulling Anna forward. "Bright eyes, pointy nose," she pulled Anna's lips apart, "strong teeth!" She released Anna's face. "Yes, yes, she'll do nicely for our Kristoff!"

That got a smirk out of me. I was starting to think Anna and Kristoff would make a cute couple.

"Wait, wait, wait," said Anna. "Ah, um, no."

"You've got the wrong idea," said Kristoff. "That's not why I brought her here."

"Right, we're not, I'm not …" She laughed awkwardly.

"What's the issue, dear?" asked the troll. "Why are you holding back from such a man?"

The movements these trolls made next were so random and crazy, at least in my eyes, that I'm not even going to _attempt_ to describe them.

 _Is it the clumpy way he walks?_

"What?" asked both Anna and Kristoff.

 _Or the grumpy way he talks?_

"Oh, no …" said Anna, but these trolls had no intention of letting her finish.

 _Or the pear-shaped, square-shaped weirdness of his feet?_

"Hey!" said Kristoff.

 _And while we know he washes well,  
_ _He always ends up sort of smelly,  
_ _But you'll never meet a fellow who's as sensitive and sweet._

"That's nice, but—" Anna was cut off again.

 _So he's a bit of a fixer upper,  
_ _So he's got a few flaws.  
_ _Like his peculiar brain, dear,  
_ _The thing with the reindeer,  
_ _That's a little outside of nature's laws._

"This is not about me!" said Kristoff.

 _So he's a bit of a fixer upper,  
_ _But this we're certain of.  
_ _You can fix this fixer upper up with a little bit of love._

"Um …" said Anna.

"Can we please just stop talking about this?" asked Kristoff. "We have a real, actual problem here!"

"I'll say," said the female troll. "So, tell me, dear …"

 _Is it the way that he runs scared  
_ _Or that he's socially impaired?  
_ _Or that he only likes to tinkle in the woods?_

"I did not need to know that," said Anna.

 _Are you holding back your fondness  
_ _Due to his unmanly blondness?  
_ _Or the way he covers up that he's the honest goods?_

 _He's just a bit of a fixer upper.  
_ _He's got a couple of bugs._

"No I don't!" Kristoff argued.

 _His isolation  
_ _Is confirmation  
_ _Of his desperation  
_ _For healing hugs._

 _So he's a bit of a fixer upper,  
_ _But we know what to do.  
_ _The way to fix up this fixer upper  
_ _Is to fix him up with you._

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" said Kristoff. "Enough! She's engaged to somebody else, okay!?"

The group of trolls that were near him all looked at me suddenly. "No, it's not me," I said. Then they huddled up and I couldn't hear what they were saying/singing until they turned around again.

 _So she's a bit of a fixer upper,  
_ _Her brain's a bit betwixed.  
_ _Get the fiancé,  
_ _Out of the way,  
_ _And the whole thing will be fixed._

The group nearer to Anna were singing something different.

 _We're not saying you can change him,  
_ ' _Cause people don't really change.  
_ _We only know that love's a force  
_ _That's powerful and strange._

 _People make bad choices  
_ _When they're sad or scared or stressed.  
_ _But throw a little love their way.  
_

 _Throw a little love their way!  
_ _And you'll bring out their best.  
_ _True love brings out the best.  
_

 _Everyone's a bit of a fixer upper,  
_ _That's what it's all about.  
_ _Father, sister, brother,  
_ _We need each other  
_ _To raise us up and round us out._

 _Everyone's a bit of a fixer upper,  
_ _But when push comes to shove,_

Then Olaf joined in.

 _The only fixer upper fixer  
_ _That can fix a fixer upper is  
_ _True  
_ _True  
_ _True  
_ _True  
_ _Love!_

By the end of this, Anna and Kristoff were standing facing each other, wearing clothes made from leaves of some sort. The trolls surrounded them like at some kind of ceremony; there was one standing right next to the two with a book in his hands. I was busy trying to figure out what the _hell_ had just happened.

The troll with the book started speaking. "Do you, Anna, take Kristoff to be your trollfully wedded husba—"

"Wait, what?" asked Anna.

"You're getting married," said the troll.

The sudden feeling of weakness I got I first attributed to my brain quickly trying to process what had just happened, but I very soon came to realise that was not the case. Anna collapsed in much the same manner I was collapsing, and while I managed to keep myself from falling over completely, staying up on my knees, I had to fight to do so. I could feel the coldness in my chest grow even worse than it had been before. It was near enough maddening now.

I paid little attention to anything that was said, just trying to keep myself up, until another troll joined the congregation. This one looked a lot older than the others. I assumed it was this Grand Pabbie that Kristoff had mentioned.

"There is strange magic here," said Grand Pabbie. "Come, come. Bring them here to me."

Kristoff helped Anna over to Grand Pabbie. I felt something work its way under my arm and lift me slightly. I looked and saw that it was Maximus, using his neck to support me. I smiled at him in gratitude, but didn't feel I had the strength to do much else. I slumped into a sitting position when I reached the troll.

After looking at both of us – and it really was just a look, a _glance_ more than anything – he spoke gravely. "Your lives are in danger. There is ice in your hearts, put there by Elsa. If it is not removed to solid ice will you freeze, forever."

"What?" Anna asked in shock.

"Please tell me you're joking," I said.

"You can help her— _them_ , right?" asked Kristoff.

"I cannot," said Grand Pabbie. "I'm sorry, Kristoff. If it were their heads, it would be easy, but only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart."

… _I think I'm screwed …_ I thought, cursing silently to myself. _Well, looks like I'm gonna die … Sorry Mum and Dad …_

"An act of true love …?" said Anna.

"A true love's kiss, perhaps?" asked the female troll from before. Several troll couples started kissing each other.

 _They're rubbing this in on purpose …_ I thought, giving a deadpan stare.

I felt myself weaken even more, and my sitting position turned into one where I was lying on the ground. A similar thing happened to Anna, but Kristoff caught her. I saw her hair turn almost completely white. I knew on instinct that mine had done the same. Now it was like every inch of my body was freezing from the inside out. (Which it technically was.)

"Anna, we need to get you back to Hans," said Kristoff. He looked at me. "Simon … what are you gonna do …?"

"… Just get me home," I said.

He nodded at me. "Pull us out, Sven," he said. Sven offered down an antler, which Kristoff grabbed, and then pulled Kristoff and Anna to their feet. He put Anna on Sven's back, then came over to me and lifted me onto Maximus' back. "You think you can keep him on?" Maximus nodded. Kristoff nodded back, then went over to Sven and climbed on behind Anna. "Olaf, come on!"

"I'm coming!" Olaf exclaimed. He ran over and jumped on Sven's back along with the other two. They started riding off, and so did Maximus, with me on his back. "Let's go kiss Hans! Who _is_ this Hans?"

Whereas I normally would have informed him or made some witty remark, I just didn't have the strength in me. What little strength I did have was being used to hang onto Maximus. I was afraid, more afraid than I had ever been in my life. I felt cold and scared, and I didn't know what I was going to do when I finally got home. There was one thing I did know, however.

I didn't want to die.

* * *

 **I'm not gonna lie, Constant Readers, the reason I didn't write out the movements and such was both due to laziness and the rush I'm in. I currently have twenty minutes to go until it's Christmas Eve, and I'm starting to rush a lot more.**

 **So, how will Simon come out of this? You've probably guessed by now, but for those of you who haven't, just keep on guessing. I'm gonna try and get the last two chapters done tomorrow. If all else fails, I'll just write the epilogue as early as I can manage on Christmas itself, though I would prefer not to work on Christmas, to be honest with you. It'll be worth it to give you guys this gift.**

 **See you in chapter 6!**


	6. She Thaws My Frozen Heart

She Thaws My Frozen Heart

If it weren't for the fact that my entire body felt cold on the inside, I probably would have marvelled at the speed with which we moved toward Arendelle. I think I must have passed out and woken up a time or two on the trip, because one minute it was still the dark of the night, then I blinked and it was the day. My entire body was going numb with cold, and my grip on Maximus would have waned if I hadn't been so conscious of keeping it.

"Come on, buddy, faster!" I vaguely heard Kristoff urge Sven.

What breaths I was taking were coming out shaky. _I really am gonna die,_ I thought in despair. _I don't want to die like this! I want to spend some more time with Mum and Dad … I want to apologise to Eugene and Rapunzel for taking Maximus without telling them … I want to see Elsa again …_

Even though she was the one that did this to Anna and I, I couldn't bring myself to feel any kind of negativity toward her. I knew it was an accidents, so there was no need to be angry at or scared of her. If anything, I wanted to see her at least one more time in order to tell her that I didn't blame her, that I forgave her for this. Hell, there was nothing _to_ forgive, in my eyes.

Any attempts to stay positive had long since ceased. I simply didn't have the willpower any more; I hadn't since I had gotten too cold to move properly. Can you blame me? I looked over all the potential outcomes in my mind, and only one thing remained consistent with each: the inevitability of my death.

But if Anna could get to Prince Hans, she would have a chance. I took comfort in the thought that it might not be both of us that dies.

"I'll meet you guys at the castle!" said Olaf, who had at some point or another fallen off of Sven. I wasn't paying much attention.

"Stay out of sight, Olaf!" Kristoff called to him.

 _Yeah, it'd be best if we didn't go giving any citizens heart attacks._

It took only a few minutes from then on for us to reach the castle. It was a bumpy ride for me, but I managed to keep my hold on Maximus well enough. When we reached the gates, Kristoff got off Sven, carrying Anna bridal style. Maximus continued to carry me on his back. He sent worried glances at me every now and then, but I did my best to smile reassuringly. I don't know how effective it was, but he faced forward again.

"A-Are you gonna be okay?" Anna asked Kristoff, her voice shaky.

Kristoff took a few moments to respond. "Don't worry about me," he said.

"J-Just don't worry at all, A-Anna," I said in a stutter. I did my best to smile. "Y-You should be fine."

"W-What about you?" she asked me, looking worried.

I shrugged, still trying to keep a smile on my face. "I'll f-figure something out."

The odds of that actually happening were basically zero … and I think they both knew it, too.

The gates of the castle opened up and out came three servants … two of which I was very familiar with. The second Mum and Dad saw me, I saw very real horror in their eyes for the first – and hopefully only – time in my entire life. Mum was wearing a long, dark grey skirt, a red shirt, and a dark grey coat. Her greying hair was visible through the front of the hood.

I tried to smile again, but it was probably the most fake one yet.

"Get them warm," said Kristoff, handing Anna off to my mother and the other of the servants who came out. "And find Prince Hans immediately."

"We will, thank you," said Dad in a rush. He was taking increasingly worried glances at me.

"Make sure she's safe!" Kristoff said just as the gates closed on him.

I was still atop Maximus on the way in. Whereas normally horses would be confined to the stables until they were needed, the fact that this one was carrying a clearly ailed me on his back probably called for an exception. The looks that the people milling about the castle gave Anna and I on the way in were shocked and horrified. I felt like a living icicle – I could only imagine how I _looked_.

A hand gripped Maximus' reins. It was Dad. He looked grave. "Come on, son," he said. "Let's get you to your room so you can get warmed up. Then we can figure out what to do. Your mother is taking Princess Anna to Prince Hans. She'll be joining us shortly."

 _It's good that they're getting Anna to Prince Hans, at least,_ I thought. Dad led Maximus through the castle and to the servants' quarters, then stopped him just outside my room. _Home, sweet home._ Dad helped me climb down from the horse, whom I patted as I left. I saw Maximus' concerned eyes one last time before Dad shut the door of my room and laid me down on the bed.

"Which was it?" asked Dad. He sounded sad. My cold heart broke seeing him like this. "Stupid or crazy?"

"A l-little bit of both, h-honestly," I said. Dad said nothing. "… Y-You know I had to do it, right? I … I couldn't j-just leave them, Dad. A-Anna and Elsa are my f-friends."

"I know," he said, nodding solemnly. "That's why I didn't stop you from going. I'm sad and I'm scared, but I'm in no way disappointed in you, Simon. Hell, I can't even bring myself to be angry."

I gave the first genuine grin I'd given since the day before. "Language," I said.

Despite the sadness in his face, Dad started laughing, and so did I. It didn't hurt to laugh as I had expected it to, but the icy feelings within my body weren't helped in any way.

"… Th-The tro— _people_ who told us what was wrong s-said it would take an act of t-true love to fix this," I told Dad. I wasn't sure why. I think, maybe, some mad part of myself that still hoped for survival thought he might know of some solution. "They s-suggested a true love's kiss m-might do the trick, as difficult t-to believe and sickeningly s-sweet as that is. Anna is covered on that front," (I didn't know at the time that, at that very moment, Anna was being shown just how _not_ covered she was), "b-but I don't really have anyone l-like that."

"What about Queen Elsa?" asked Dad. I looked at him, shocked, and he gave a weak laugh. "What, you think I never noticed? Son, even at the young age you were, we could all see the special bond you two had. You would always seek her out when you were feeling sad or lonely, and you spent a significantly larger amount of time with her than you did with Princess Anna. Even the King and Queen knew."

 _That_ shocked me. "A-And they weren't angry or a-anything?" I asked.

"Not in the slightest," said Mum, who had appeared in the door. She looked at me, lying on the bed, with a sad smile. "As a matter of fact, I seem to remember them finding it quite adorable that their daughter was growing so fond of somebody."

 _Elsa was fond of me?_ I thought, my eyes widening. A small spark of hope lit up inside me … only to be crushed when another bout of weakness overtook me and my head fell to my pillow.

"Simon!" both of my parents exclaimed, coming over. "Dear Lord …" said Dad, looking at my hair. "Your hair … it's all white …"

 _So it's nearly over,_ I thought. I had taken to using the state of my hair as some sort of timer. I had assumed that I would be frozen as soon as it all turned white, but that was apparently not the case. Still, it couldn't be long now.

"What do we do?" asked Mum.

"N-Nothing," I said before Dad could speak. "There's nothing else _to_ do. I-It'll take a miracle at this point, and I'm c-content to wait for one … or d-death. Whichever comes first."

"Don't say that!" Dad snapped at me.

"There must be something …" said Mum.

I was about to reiterate my point, but then I noticed something. At first I thought it was a trick of the light, but then I realised that it was very real. There were small patches of ice coming from the tiny cracks in the walls, and even from between the brickwork in some places. At first I thought it was just the condensation freezing over in the cold … but then it started spreading _violently_ across the walls. I knew that could only mean one thing.

" _Elsa_ …" I said with a gasp. I got a sudden burst of energy and stood up from the bed.

"Simon, no, you should lie down," said Dad, putting a hand on my shoulder and trying to push me back to the bed.

" _You've got to let me go_!" I practically growled, my eyes narrowed in determination. "C-Can you not see the ice on the walls? Elsa is _here_."

Without waiting for a response, I shoved past him and toward the door, which I then yanked open. I was stumbling a little as I walked, but that was of little concern to me. I sighed out in relief when I saw that Maximus was still outside my door, apparently having been pacing up and down the corridor. His eyes went wide when they saw me, as did the eyes of the two familiar faces that were standing with him.

"Simon!" Eugene said, smiling widely. "Where'd you vanish off to with Max, buddy? We've been worried."

"Are you okay?" asked Rapunzel.

"No time," I said, breathing heavily. I looked at Maximus, nodded my head toward the spreading ice, which was now starting to expand into large icicles. Maximus nodded at me, and with one swift movement, he had gotten me onto his back.

"Wait, what's going on?" asked Rapunzel.

"To p-put it in simple terms," I said, now wanting to move quickly. "I've g-gotta go see about a girl."

I then flicked Maximus' reins, and he was off in the fastest run I'd seen him pull yet.

At first it seemed to be going well. Maximus was running through the hallways, past all the people who were bustling about the castle trying to keep warm. But then things got complicated. The icicles started getting bigger, and they blocked off the paths we were taking more and more. It was starting to look like the idea of getting out was becoming something of an impossibility.

"Come on, Maximus," I urged him. "Come on … We just need to find her, that's all. We need to find Elsa." I didn't know it, but that small spark of hope that had been so quickly extinguished was back with a vengeance. But all my mind was focusing on was finding and helping Elsa.

I suddenly found that I couldn't move or feel my hands. I looked at them, and they were now frozen in the position of grabbing Maximus' reins. They were literally ice.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit …" I muttered to myself. "Come on, Maximus! Find us a way out!"

He looked back at me, and the look he gave me I could read perfectly: "Brace yourself."

I held my head down and moved my body so that I was lying as flat as I could get on Maximus' back. I didn't see him jump out of the window, but the smash and the shards of glass that were suddenly in my hair told me all I needed to know about that.

Getting out of the castle had taken too long, though. As I squinted my eyes due to the snow blowing into my face, I found that my vision was growing fuzzy. Things started to darken in front of my eyes, and my sight was going … going …

… gone.

* * *

Elsa is on her knees, her heart full of nothing but despair and anguish. Prince Hans, the one her sister had gotten engaged to after knowing him for only a day, was coming up slowly behind her with a sword. He has just told her that her sister, Anna, and her childhood friend, Simon, have returned from the mountains weak and cold. Back in her castle, when they had been trying to talk her into coming back with them, she had frozen their hearts.

And now Hans has told her that they're dead.

This causes her more distress than she has ever felt before in her life. More so, even, than when she accidentally struck Anna's head with her powers during their childhood – the incident that caused her to lock herself away all these years. The two people she loves most in the world are dead … and it's all her fault.

Anna is – _was –_ her sister, and Elsa has loved her dearly all throughout her life, as most love their siblings. Simon, though … the love she feels for him is something else entirely.

The realisation of this came about first at the party after her coronation. Simon had approached her and Anna with chocolate after they'd both sniffed it out. Her first thought upon looking at him had been of how handsome he has grown after all these years. Her heart had picked up its pace in her chest, and she had a slightly larger struggle than usual to keep her emotions under control. "Conceal it, don't feel it," as her father had taught her. After her outburst at Anna, she felt the most regret after seeing that she had very nearly stabbed Simon through the throat with her ice.

Back then she didn't know what these feelings for him were. It wasn't until he said it himself that she understood.

 _For God's sake, Elsa, I_ love _you!_ he had shouted when she cast him, Anna, Olaf, and the other man from her ice castle in the North Mountain. It shocked her, but it also made her realise something.

She loves him, too. She has ever since they were children.

And now he was dead. Him and Anna … and it's all Elsa's fault.

Her anguish alone has made the roaring snow stop, though the cold is still very much present.

" _No_!" cries a voice behind her, the voice of Anna, and there is the sound of something freezing and metal breaking.

Elsa turns around slowly and sees a perfect ice sculpture of her sister standing there with an arm raised in the air. Except Elsa knows it's not a sculpture. " _Anna_!" she exclaims, standing up and running to the front of her frozen sister. "Anna …" she says again. "No, no …" she places her hands on the sides of Anna's face, "please, no." Seeing no change, Elsa throws herself into hugging Anna, crying cascades of tears as she does so.

"Anna …" says Olaf, who has just arrived. The other man who Elsa doesn't know is there, too, and he looks equally devastated. There was a reindeer there, too. Prince Hans is on the floor, seemingly unconscious. But Elsa is too preoccupied with crying over her loss to really acknowledge them.

That's when something miraculous happens.

The ice starts to go away.

It starts at Anna's chest, then spreads across her whole body. The ice vanishes from her form, revealing her as she should be. Olaf gasps in wonder at the spectacle. The reindeer nudged the man, who looked up, his face rising from the down expression it was just in.

Elsa looks up when she feels movement and sees that Anna is no longer frozen. "Anna!" she says in joy. She pulls her into a tight hug.

"Elsa," says Anna.

"You sacrificed yourself for me?" asked Elsa.

"Of course," says Anna. "I love you."

Olaf gasps in joy. "An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart," he says.

"Love will thaw …?" says Elsa. She realises something and a smile overtakes her face. She is about to put this new knowledge to good use, when the sound of approaching hooves distracts her.

It's a white horse carrying something rapidly on its back.

"Maximus!" says Anna, smiling. "What've you got there, boy …?" Her eyes widen as she sees it.

 _All_ of their eyes widen when they see what Maximus is carrying.

It's Simon … but he's frozen as Anna was moments before. Maximus slows to a stop right beside them. The man, without even needing to be asked, walks over and pulls him from Maximus' back in order to give him a rest. Simon is frozen in the position of sitting on Maximus' back, holding the reins in his hands. It takes some effort to pull the reins from his frozen grip, but it's managed.

"Simon …" Elsa says, leaning down and stroking a hand across his icy face.

"… Do you think there's still time?" Kristoff asks.

"There's got to be," says Anna. She looks at Elsa, and she sees it now. She sees what everyone else sees whenever they say Simon is in love with Elsa. It wasn't until he admitted it that Anna truly started believing it, but now she sees it clearly. She also sees that Elsa looks at him in much the same way as he looks at her. "An act of true love, Elsa … Do you think you've got one in you?"

Elsa says nothing. She simply stares at Simon's frozen face, a tingle of hope making itself known inside her. Knowing how such stories involving love usually end, and knowing that she will be very happy to do so, she leans down to administer the classic act of true love.

Elsa doesn't really feel the cold of Simon's lips as she presses hers against them. But she does feel it when the ice begins to vanish.

* * *

The feeling in my body coming back to me was only the first of the surprises I got in that moment. The other was the feeling of something cold against my lips as my senses returned to me. I opened my eyes and saw that Elsa was right in front of me … and she was _kissing_ me.

My eyes went wide and my heart bloomed with joy and relief. _I'm alive!_ I cheered in my mind. _I'm alive and ELSA IS KISSING ME!_

Choosing not to waste any time, I wrapped my unfrozen arms around Elsa and kissed her back. Her eyes snapped open and we made eye contact. My joy was being reflected back at me from her eyes. She hummed into the kiss and closed her eyes, and I did the same. I had truly never been happier in my life.

"Okay, you two, you can lock lips again later," said Anna. I felt relief at hearing her voice again. "We've got a winter to end."

Elsa separated from me, and I reluctantly unwrapped my arms from around her so that she could get up. She held a hand out to me, which I took, and then helped me to my feet. She looked around, smiling. "Love," she said, waving an arm through the air.

For a moment I wasn't sure what was happening, but then snow seemed to be going … upwards? I looked at the floor and gasped in awe, as did Anna, as the ice started floating up into the air as snowflakes. Sven tried to catch some on his tongue, but they floated away from him. Maximus eyed them suspiciously and tried to stay away, which proved to be impossible. It actually made me laugh a little. As the fjord started to melt away, I saw that, by pure lucky coincidence, we were standing on one of the ships, so we didn't get needlessly wet when the water was unfrozen.

Very soon all of Arendelle was ice- and snow-free. The natural beauty and heat of the summertime was back.

"You're amazing, you know that, Elsa?" I asked, smiling at her. She smiled widely back at me.

"I knew you could do it," Anna said, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"Hands down, this is the best day of my life," said Olaf happily. Then I noticed that he was getting significantly shorter and more droopy-looking. His carrot nose fell off. "And quite possibly the last."

"Oh, Olaf," Elsa said, laughing a little. "Hang on, little guy." She waved her hand at him.

A cloud appeared above Olaf's head, and it rained snow down upon him. His body was reformed in a display of blue sparkles. "My own personal flurry!" he said, doing a little dance.

Everyone was smiling. All seemed right with the world.

Some groaning could be heard. A few feet away, Prince Hans was climbing to his feet. Kristoff made to storm over to him, but Anna put a hand to his chest and stopped him. She stood up straight, wore a neutral expression, and made her way over to him.

"Anna?" asked Prince Hans, obviously confused. "But … she froze your heart …"

"The only frozen heart around here is yours," she said. She turned around like she was just going to walk away, but then quickly turned toward him and punched him right in the face. He stumbled off the ship and into the water of the fjord. (Which can't have been warm in any sense of the word, for it had only just been unfrozen.)

"… Okay, somebody's going to need to explain what the hell happened between getting back to Arendelle and this exact moment," I said. "Because I am awfully confused."

Elsa and Anna started to hug it out. Kristoff put an arm around Sven's neck. I took my bag (which was surprisingly undamaged by all this excitement) and threw the final remaining apple at him. He ate it as enthusiastically as he'd eaten the others, and even moved to nuzzle my head. I patted his muzzle affectionately. When I turned back toward the hugging sisters, I saw that Kristoff had been pulled into the hug.

 _Ah, what the hell?_ I thought. I went over and put my arms around them, joining in the group hug. I was happy.

When we separated, Anna went over to Sven with Kristoff and they talked. I looked at Elsa and felt like butterflies were flying around in my stomach … in a good way, though.

"I love you, Elsa," I said. The words came much easier now.

She smiled at me, and when she spoke, my life filled up with happiness. "I love you, too, Simon."

We kissed again, and many times after that.

* * *

 **So, Prince Hans turned out to be quite possibly the biggest prick I'd ever met in my life. As it turned out, he'd planned to marry Anna and kill Elsa as a way of taking the throne of Arendelle. I still wish I had the chance to sock the son of a bitch myself. Instead he was sent back to the Southern Isles in the brig of the ship he came on, and the hope was that he would be thrown in prison over there. If not … well, he'd just better hope he never encounters me, let's put it that way.**

 **The Duke of Weselton (Weaseltown), who had tried to have Elsa killed during this whole mess, was sent back home. Arendelle never did business with Weselton ever again. It was Dad who dropped that particular bomb on the Duke, and from what he's said, it brought him great satisfaction to do so. (He even made good on my dare for a second time!)**

 **Anna gave Kristoff that new sled she owed him. I've seen it, and it's really quite impressive. Elsa gave Kristoff a job that Kristoff and I both agree never existed before now, but that doesn't really matter, does it? Those two started courting, and they really are a very cute couple.**

 **Olaf is … Olaf. That about sums it all up, really. He got his dream of seeing summer, and he seems to have enjoyed himself.**

 **Eugene, Rapunzel, Pascal (who they had kept warm by a fire, thank God), and, last but not least, Maximus left for Corona shortly after the fjord was unfrozen. There were no hard feelings held by Eugene and Rapunzel for taking Maximus … on the condition that they receive an invite to my and Elsa's eventual wedding. I told them that wouldn't be a problem, though I stuttered the whole time saying it. I was sad to see Maximus go; I had come to be quite attached to that horse.**

 **Elsa and I started a relationship. A servant courting the Queen caused quite an uproar amongst the more snobby citizens, but for some reason they never once confronted either of us. (I'm sure it has absolutely _nothing_ to do with the fact that Elsa has ice powers.) We're happy together, and it's nice when we're able to double date with Anna and Kristoff. I'm in love, I'm happy, and that's really the end of my story.**

 **For now, anyway. Who's to say this would be the only extraordinary experience of my life?**

 **Maybe I'll tell you about the others sometime. Thank you for listening to my story.**

 **Anna, Kristoff, Sven, Olaf, Elsa, and I will see you again soon.**

* * *

 **And that's a wrap for not only chapter 6, but the story itself, Constant Readers! There's a FINISHED story on my profile!**

 **Yes, Hans knew about Simon having his heart frozen. How? Well, obviously someone was going to tell him that somebody else was in a similar condition. Maybe it was Anna, maybe it was one of the servants, but somebody was going to say something.**

" **True love's kiss." Very cliché, I know, but this is DISNEY we're talking about here. Yes, they went out of their way to break the formula with _Frozen_ , but that doesn't mean some of the classics can't apply, does it? Plus, this story was written in the space of a week! Give me some credit.**

 **I do plan on writing a one-shot based on _Frozen Fever_ , but that probably won't be around for awhile yet. I've got other things to do. And you guys can count on a _Frozen 2_ story when that comes out!**

 **Thank you for reading, Constant Readers, and be sure to leave a review giving me your thoughts. I plan on doing another OC/Elsa story in future, this time getting more courageous with the potential changes that could be made, and I hope you'll tune in for that, too.**

 **Goodbye, Constant Readers!**


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